CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.11-12.2
Description:
Key Ideas and Details
Determine two or more central ideas of a text and analyze their development over the course of the text, including how they interact and build on one another to provide a complex analysis; provide an objective summary of the text.
Maps to Reading Plus skills:
1A, 2A, 2B, 2C, 5B
Exemplars
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?
- Its tail is sensitive to light and dark.
- It has ten eyes, located on both sides of the shell.
- It uses its legs like flippers to swim.
- It can see its prey from a long distance away.
- 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
2A: Determining Main Idea
2A: Determining Main Idea
Description:
Determining Main Idea and Themes
SeeReader
✓ standard met
Selection:
K-5
K-5
Grade level: 11
Word count: 1987 words
Author: Kathy Menard
Synopsis: Left-handed people do have to make some accommodations in their lives in order to perform everyday tasks.
Excerpt:
No excerpt is available for this question.
Question:
What is the main idea of this selection?
- Although they are a minority, left-handed people can thrive and become successful.
- Left-handed people experience many inconveniences because the world is geared toward right-handed people.
- The myths and superstitions about left-handed people are unsupported by evidence.
- It is essential that parents and teachers help children accept their left-handedness from an early age.
Writing
✓ standard met
Writing prompt:
Is it necessary for every selection to have a main idea? Develop an argument and use evidence from selections you have read to provide supporting evidence.
Evaluator
Organization:
Certica Solutions
2B: Analyzing Relative Importance
2B: Analyzing Relative Importance
Description:
Determining Relative Importance
SeeReader
✓ standard met
Selection:
K-25
K-25
Grade level: 11
Word count: 2219 words
Author: Lionel Beasley
Synopsis: Injuries to the brain can have far more damaging long-term effects on an athlete than a broken arm or torn cartilage.
Excerpt:
When the injury is a concussion, the pressures are particularly intense. A cast, a sling, or a limp make the nature of an injury clear. The effects of concussions are not as readily apparent. While a lack of mental acuity or dizziness may be a problem, physically the player may appear to perfectly healthy. Teammates playing with torn tendons, ripped cartilage, severely bruised muscles, or hairline fractures may look askance at another player who is sitting out practices or games with no apparent injury.
Question:
What is the main reason some coaches overlook the need to pull players who incur a blow to the head from competition?
- The players usually have no visible signs of injury.
- Parents don't like to see their kids sit on the bench.
- Other team members are relying on the players to win.
- The injured players insist on returning to action on the field.
Writing
✓ standard met
Writing prompt:
When reading for information, why is it important to concentrate on the most important facts? Give an example from your social studies or science textbook of how you would do this.
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?
- The scientists found that fat is vital for a healthy brain and body as well as for a cheerful temperament.
- The scientists discovered that eating fatty junk foods can lead to heart problems and other ailments.
- Researchers realized that most people consume too much fat in their daily meals.
- 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
5B: Examining Sequence
5B: Examining Sequence
Description:
Examining Sequence of Ideas and Events
SeeReader
✓ standard met
Selection:
K-9
K-9
Grade level: 11
Word count: 2324 words
Author: Guinevere Tobias
Synopsis: Supporters of Gustave Whitehead are challenging the Wright brothers' place in aviation history.
Excerpt:
For nearly 100 years, a small group of aviation enthusiasts have asserted that a now-obscure German immigrant named Gustave Whitehead piloted the first heavier-than-air craft in Fairfield, Connecticut, on August 14, 1901, more than two years before the Wright brothers' venture.
The story of Gustave Whitehead and his airplane began in Germany, where he was born in 1874. Orphaned at the age of 13, he lived with relatives until becoming an apprentice to a machinist who taught him to construct engines.
In 1893, he settled in the United States, shortly translating his surname to the more English-sounding "Whitehead." His first jobs involved constructing gliders, a type of heavier-than-air plane powered only by air currents and gravity.
With its wings folded up, Number 21 could be driven like a car over regular roads; so Whitehead drove it from Bridgeport to the nearby town of Fairfield. There, he flew the plane twice, first for half a mile and then for a mile and a half, achieving of height of 50 feet.
The story of Gustave Whitehead and his airplane began in Germany, where he was born in 1874. Orphaned at the age of 13, he lived with relatives until becoming an apprentice to a machinist who taught him to construct engines.
In 1893, he settled in the United States, shortly translating his surname to the more English-sounding "Whitehead." His first jobs involved constructing gliders, a type of heavier-than-air plane powered only by air currents and gravity.
With its wings folded up, Number 21 could be driven like a car over regular roads; so Whitehead drove it from Bridgeport to the nearby town of Fairfield. There, he flew the plane twice, first for half a mile and then for a mile and a half, achieving of height of 50 feet.
Question:
Given the claims made by Whitehead's advocates, place the following events in his life in order, starting with the earliest.
- Whitehead learns to construct engines from a machinist.
- Whitehead settles in America and takes a job constructing gliders.
- Whitehead flies a heavier-than-air craft in Fairfield, Connecticut.
- The Wright brothers fly a heavier-than-air plane at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.
Writing
✓ standard met
Writing prompt:
Think about the selections you have read that explain how something happens or is done. Explain the process in complete detail in your own words, so that people reading your instructions are able to understand or perform the entire process successfully on their own.
Evaluator
Organization:
Certica Solutions