11-12.RL.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, 1B, 3B, 4C, 8B, 9B

Exemplars

1B: Analyzing Implicit Details

1B: Analyzing Implicit Details

Description: Drawing Conclusions, Making Inferences from information in text

SeeReader
✓ standard met

Selection: K-6

K-6

Grade level: 11
Word count: 2418 words
Author: Diane Lang
Synopsis: After a serious football injury, Sam gets a highly trained monkey that not only assists him physically but helps him emotionally.
Excerpt: Quitting her job to become his full-time caregiver, Mrs. Hayward erected a shrine to Sam in the living room, decorating the fireplace mantel and nearby shelves with his football and soccer trophies.

She tirelessly prepared his favorite meals, but nothing could alleviate Sam's dark moods as the family almost drained its finances to bring in physical therapists to rehabilitate Sam. Because he had lost all hope, his improvement was slow.

Question: Why did Sam's mom display his trophies in the living room?
  1. to demonstrate he had the ability to show determination and courage
  2. to remind him that he can rejoin his teams when he gets better
  3. to show visitors that he had been a star athlete before his injury
  4. to motivate him to do the same vigorous exercises he once did

Writing
✓ standard met

Writing prompt: Describe how you arrived at conclusions about a selection's main idea and characters if information about these text elements was not directly stated.

Evaluator

Organization: Certica Solutions

3B: Analyzing Plot/Character

3B: Analyzing Plot/Character

Description: Analyzing setting, plot, and character

SeeReader
✓ standard met

Selection: K-23

K-23

Grade level: 11
Word count: 2412 words
Author: Anton Chekhov
Synopsis: A wager between a banker and a lawyer yields an unexpected result.
Excerpt: "That cursed bet!" murmured the old man, clutching his head in despair. "He's only forty years old, he will deprive me of my last penny, marry, enjoy life, and I will look on like an envious beggar and hear the same dreaded words from him every day: 'I'm obliged to you for my life's happiness.' No, no, it's too much -- the only escape from bankruptcy and disgrace is that the man should die."

Question: Based on this excerpt, what conclusion can be made about the banker's motivations?
  1. His greed drove him to consider committing a terrible crime.
  2. His jealousy caused him to feign friendship while plotting revenge.
  3. His selfishness drove him to lie about the original wager.
  4. His pride caused him to openly reject his wealth while secretly hiding it.

Writing
✓ standard met

Writing prompt: Imagine you are the main character in a selection you read. Would your emotional reactions to events in the selection be the same as those of the actual character? Explain why or why not.

Evaluator

Organization: Certica Solutions

4C: Visualizing

4C: Visualizing

Description: Visualizing

SeeReader
✓ standard met

Selection: K-31

K-31

Grade level: 11
Word count: 2673 words
Author: Nathaniel Hawthorne
Synopsis: Life is altered forever when Pandora opens a mysterious box.
Excerpt: Epimetheus watched her. If he had cried out, Pandora would probably have withdrawn her hand, and the fatal mystery of the box might never have been revealed. But Epimetheus himself, although he would not admit it aloud, had his own share of curiosity to know what was inside. Perceiving that Pandora was resolved to find out the abstract secret, he determined that his friend should not be the only wise person in the cottage. If there were anything pretty, valuable, or remarkable in the box, he meant to take half of it to himself.

Question: Read this excerpt. What kind of expression could you expect to see on Epimetheus' face?
  1. fixed
  2. agitated
  3. grim
  4. pitying

Writing
✓ standard met

Writing prompt: Explain how and why visions or pictures of a character, setting, or event develop and change with the introduction of new information. Use details from a selection you have read to illustrate and support your explanation.

Evaluator

Organization: Certica Solutions

8B: Reasoning

8B: Reasoning

Description: Reasoning

SeeReader
✓ standard met

Selection: K-31

K-31

Grade level: 11
Word count: 2673 words
Author: Nathaniel Hawthorne
Synopsis: Life is altered forever when Pandora opens a mysterious box.
Excerpt: But Pandora, heeding nothing of all this, lifted the lid nearly upright, and looked inside. Chaos ensued. It seemed as if a sudden swarm of winged creatures brushed past her, taking flight out of the box, while, at the same instant, she heard the voice of Epimetheus, with a lamentable tone, as if he were in pain.

What had made their escape out of the solitary box? They were the whole family of earthly Troubles. There were evil passions and a great many species of cares. There were more than a 150 sorrows. There were diseases in a vast number of miserable and painful shapes. There were more kinds of naughtiness than it would be of any use to discuss.

Question: Answer these two questions. What do the winged characters represent and how do they change the world?
  1. They symbolize human problems.
  2. They transform the world from pleasure to misery.
  3. They symbolize suffering.
  4. They transform the world from despair to delight.
  5. They symbolize ancient gods.

Writing
✓ standard met

Writing prompt: Should fictional stories show the world as it really is, or as it should be? Use details from a selection you have read, as well as your reasoning skills and personal experiences, to write your answer.

Evaluator

Organization: Certica Solutions

9B: Classifying

9B: Classifying

Description: Classify

SeeReader
✓ standard met

Selection: K-23

K-23

Grade level: 11
Word count: 2412 words
Author: Anton Chekhov
Synopsis: A wager between a banker and a lawyer yields an unexpected result.
Excerpt: During the first year of solitary imprisonment, the lawyer, judging from his frantic short notes, suffered terribly from loneliness and boredom; from his cell day and night came the sound of the piano. He was sent books of whimsical character: novels with complicated yet preposterous love interests, stories of crime and fantasy, comedies, and so on.

In the second half of the sixth year, the prisoner began zealously to study languages, philosophy, and history; in the space of four years about six hundred volumes were purchased at his request.

Later, after the tenth year, the lawyer sat immovable before his table and read only the New Testament; the banker found it peculiar that a man who in four years had mastered six hundred erudite volumes should have spent nearly a year examining one book, easy to understand and by no means thick. The New Testament was then replaced by the history of religions and theology.

During the final two years of his solitary confinement the prisoner read an extraordinary amount, quite haphazardly: he would apply himself to the natural sciences, then he would devote himself wholeheartedly to Byron or Shakespeare. Notes came from him requesting, simultaneously, books on chemistry, a textbook of medicine, a novel, and some treatise on philosophy or theology -- he read as though he were swimming in the sea among broken fragments of shattered wreckage, and in his desperate desire to survive was eagerly grasping one piece after another.

Question: Based on these excerpts, which two statements best describe the significance of books in this selection?
  1. At the beginning they represent entertainment and study.
  2. At the end they symbolize a descent into madness.
  3. At first they represent man's superior knowledge.
  4. At the end they represent man's foolishness.
  5. From start to finish they represent the knowledge of human history.

Writing
✓ standard met

Writing prompt: Classify the kinds of characters in a fictional narrative selection (narrator, protagonist, antagonist, anti-hero, foil, symbolic, etc.) and describe their functions. Use details from a selection you have read to illustrate and explain your classifications.

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