Reading Plus State Standards Alignment: Exemplars

3B: Analyzing Plot/Character

SeeReader
✓ standard met

Selection: I-22

Excerpt: Regardless of her affliction, she was a fearless tomboy, furthering her closeness to her father. Together they practiced soccer and engaged in various athletic activities to build strength in her weakened leg. They went on nature walks, collecting specimens to view under his microscope, and shared intellectual and creative pursuits, including painting.

Question: The relationship between Frida and her father can be described as

nurturing and spirited.
competitive and strained.
formal and unemotional.
passive and reserved.

Writing
✓ standard met

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

Evaluator

Organization: Certica Solutions

3C: Analyzing Cause/Effect

SeeReader
✓ standard met

Selection: I-36

Excerpt: Once upstairs we plunked down on my bottom bunk and began to draft our ransom note. I wrote the note while John thought up what we should say, since he was the creative one but had terrible spelling and handwriting. I tried to conceal my identity from Mom and Dad by writing the note while holding the pen in my left hand, since I normally use my right hand.

Question: Why did Jay write the ransom note with his left hand?

He did not want his parents to recognize his handwriting.
He wanted it to look as if John wrote the note.
He was writing the draft with his left hand but would use his right hand for the actual note.
He had better handwriting when using his left hand.

Writing
✓ standard met

Writing prompt: Describe the cause and effect relationship in a selection you read.

Evaluator

Organization: Certica Solutions

5A: Examining Text Structure

SeeReader
✓ standard met

Selection: I-38

Excerpt: "Mr. Lockwood, your new tenant, sir. I do myself the honor of calling as soon as possible after my arrival, to express the hope that I have not inconvenienced you by my perseverance in soliciting the occupation of Thrushcross Grange: I heard yesterday you had had some thoughts. . ."

Question: Who is the narrator of this selection?

Mr. Lockwood
Emily Bronte
Joseph
Mr. Heathcliff

Writing
✓ standard met

Writing prompt: Describe how the author of a selection uses details to advance the plot.

Evaluator

Organization: Certica Solutions

5B: Examining Sequence

SeeReader
✓ standard met

Selection: I-44

Excerpt: After landing in Minneapolis, we took a lengthy bus ride to Star Lake Wilderness Camp, located near small-town Brainerd. Once we arrived at our campsite, we unloaded our equipment: tents, sleeping bags, water jugs, cleaning supplies, and coolers of food.

After attending night school, I slept with my sparse belongings on a bench in Jefferson Park, a dangerous area across from the Drop-In Center, a place that helps find shelter and food for homeless people. Occasionally, a volunteer at the Drop-In Center would find a bed for me, but only for a few nights--competition was really stiff.

His agent loved my work, and a year later my creations were winning the respect of artists, journalists, photographers, and celebrities alike. I became a full-time artist and traveled often to Atlanta for photo shoots, much to the delight of my parents.

Then one night in Port-au-Prince, a random band performed "I Heard It Through the Grapevine," and my days spent in Sam's Gym drifted back to me. At that particular moment, I felt empty and purposeless.

Question: Put the following settings in order from first to last as they appear in the selection.

Star Lake Wilderness Camp
Drop-In Center at Jefferson Park
parents' home in Atlanta, Georgia
band concert in Port-au-Prince, Haiti

Writing
✓ standard met

Writing prompt: Create a timeline of the sequence of events in a selection. Use the Internet or other research tools to find other historical events that occurred during the same timeframe and incorporate the dates on your timeline.

Evaluator

Organization: Certica Solutions

7C: Interpreting Images

SeeReader
✓ standard met

Selection: I-34

Image:

Question: What significance does this item have in the selection?

If the King did not take this item from the hermit, he would have been attacked.
If the King took this item from the hermit, he would have been attacked.
If the man did not take this item from the hermit, he would have met the King.
If the man took this item from the hermit, he would have met the King.

Writing
✓ standard met

Writing prompt: Describe how images used in a text added to the mood or overall understanding of the text. Use images and details from a selection you have read to illustrate and explain your answer.

Evaluator

Organization: Certica Solutions

8B: Reasoning

SeeReader
✓ standard met

Selection: I-7

Excerpt: You fail, or you go from my words in any partickler, no matter how small it is, and your heart and your liver shall be tore out, roasted, and ate. Now, I ain't alone, as you may think I am. There's a young man hid with me, in comparison with which young man I am a Angel. That young man hears the words I speak. That young man has a horrible secret way pecooliar to himself, of getting at a boy, and at his heart, and at his liver. It is in wain for a boy to attempt to hide himself from that young man. A boy may lock his door, may be warm in bed, may tuck himself up, may draw the clothes over his head, may think himself comfortable and safe, but that young man will softly creep and creep his way to him and tear him open. I am a keeping that horrible young man from harming of you at the present moment, with great difficulty. I find it wery hard to hold that young man off of your inside. Now, what do you say?"

Question: Based on this excerpt, the old stranger mentions there is a young man with him because

Pip might think the old stranger does not look strong enough to carry out his threats.
Pip would feel less threatened by a young man and want to be his friend.
the stranger would need the help of a young man to cut off the leg iron.
a young man would want Pip to bring him more supplies.

Writing
✓ standard met

Writing prompt: Describe a scene from a selection. Explain how you put together clues from that scene to figure out how and why something happened.

Evaluator

Organization: Certica Solutions

9A: Comparing/Contrasting

SeeReader
✓ standard met

Selection: I-35

Excerpt: Suddenly, from the forest a half-mile in front—apparently from among the upper branches of the trees, but really from the ridge beyond—rose a tall column of white smoke. A moment later came a deep, jarring explosion, followed—almost attended—by a hideous rushing sound that seemed to leap forward across the intervening space with inconceivable rapidity, rising from whisper to roar with too quick a gradation for attention to note the successive stages of its horrible progression! A visible tremor ran along the lines of men; all were startled into motion. Captain Graffenreid dodged and threw up his hands to one side of his head, palms outward.

The enemy's shot was not answered; the officer in command at that exposed part of the line had evidently no desire to provoke a cannonade. For the forbearance Captain Graffenreid was conscious of a sense of gratitude. He had not known that the flight of a projectile was a phenomenon of so appalling character. His conception of war had already undergone a profound change, and he was conscious that his new feeling was manifesting itself in visible perturbation. His blood was boiling in his veins; he had a choking sensation and felt that if he had a command to give it would be inaudible, or at least unintelligible. The hand in which he held his sword trembled; the other moved automatically, clutching at various parts of his clothing. He found a difficulty in standing still and fancied that his men observed it. Was it fear? He feared it was.

Question: Based on this excerpt, in which way does Captain Graffenreid differ from the other men fighting in his troop.

He is more nervous during battle.
He is braver during battle.
He has more fighting experience.
He rides a horse during battle.

Writing
✓ standard met

Writing prompt: Create a Venn diagram to demonstrate the physical, emotional, and intellectual similarities and differences between two characters from selections you have read.

Evaluator

Organization: Certica Solutions

9B: Classifying

SeeReader
✓ standard met

Selection: I-34

Excerpt: "You are tired," said the King, "let me take the spade and work awhile for you."

"Thanks!" said the hermit, and, giving the spade to the King, he sat down on the ground.

But the King did not give him the spade, and continued to dig. One hour passed, and another.

The King turned round, and saw a bearded man come running out of the wood. The man held his hands pressed against his stomach, and blood was flowing from under them. When he reached the King, he fell fainting on the ground moaning feebly. The King and the hermit loosened the man's clothing. The King washed it as best he could, and bandaged it with his handkerchief and with a towel the hermit had.

The King was very glad to have made peace with his enemy so easily, and to have gained him for a friend, and he not only forgave him, but said he would send his servants and his own physician to attend him, and promised to restore his property.

Question: The King learns the answers to his three questions after he performs three acts of compassion in this selection. What were the three acts?

He helped the hermit dig, he cared for the wounded man, and he made peace with the wounded man.
He helped the hermit dig, he paid for a doctor for the wounded man, and he fed the guard.
He cared for the wounded man, he brought gifts for the hermit's family, and he made peace with the guard.
He made peace with the hermit, he helped the wounded man, and he found jobs for the learned men.

Writing
✓ standard met

Writing prompt: List three of your personal interests. By using the Internet or visiting a library, find five books that relate to each of those interests. Label the books as fiction or non-fiction and indicate how each book relates to an interest.

Evaluator

Organization: Certica Solutions

3B: Analyzing Plot/Character

SeeReader
✓ standard met

Selection: I-12

Excerpt: Without that avatar, the user could not enter these fantasy worlds because they are artificial and digitally enhanced environments that can be observed only through a gaming console or computer.

Like the gods in Hindu mythology who cannot visit Earth unless in avatar form, so too users cannot enter the fantasy worlds of their favorite video game without creating an avatar to represent them.

Question: How are Hindu avatars and video game avatars similar?

both allow interaction with an otherwise unreachable world
both have bodies that are subject to the laws of nature
both lack freedom and are destined to a life of struggle
both take the form of monsters to show their power

Writing
✓ standard met

Writing prompt: Think about the characters in a selection. What motivates these characters to act the way they do?

Evaluator

Organization: Certica Solutions

5A: Examining Text Structure

SeeReader
✓ standard met

Selection: I-11

Excerpt: Our planet Earth is not a perfect sphere but rather an "oblate spheroid." This is because the Earth's rotation causes it to stretch out around the equator, flattening slightly at the poles like a short, fat tomato. A similar effect of rotation happens when a baker spins a ball of pizza dough into the air so it widens around the edges, eventually flattening into a disc.

Question: Choose the sentence in this excerpt that contains the figure of speech called a simile.

Writing
✓ standard met

Writing prompt: Choose an informational text that presents information in a cause-and-effect or problem-and-solution manner. Describe why the organization of information did (or did not) help you understand the main idea of the selection.

Evaluator

Organization: Certica Solutions

5B: Examining Sequence

SeeReader
✓ standard met

Selection: I-19

Excerpt: In 2002, he started a restaurant in London called Fifteen. At the restaurant, he arranged to train 15 young people from disadvantaged backgrounds each year so they could get jobs in the restaurant industry.

Oliver instituted his campaign for better lunches in London's Kidbrooke School, and took his camera crew along to film a TV show.

Soon afterward, Oliver founded a group called Feed Me Better. After drafting an online petition for better school food, he received more than 271,000 signatures.

He began with a show in which he traveled around the country eating different kinds of food. He chose as his target a community in Huntington, West Virginia, a small town known for its poor health statistics.

He called this program "Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution," using techniques he had developed for "Jamie's School Dinners" and "Jamie's Ministry of Food."

Question: Put the four social activist projects Oliver created in the order in which they occurred, starting with the earliest.

He started a restaurant called Fifteen.
He instituted a campaign for better lunches at Kidbrooke School.
He founded a group called Feed Me Better.
He went to West Virgina to start Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution.

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

9A: Comparing/Contrasting

SeeReader
✓ standard met

Selection: I-46

Excerpt: Greenland is known for its extreme seasons and the bizarre effects of being positioned so close to the North Pole. Notable among these is the daylight, with the summertime sun never fully disappearing, setting upon the horizon only to rise again a few hours later. The viewer's perception of this is a continuous transition between sunset and sunrise, causing brilliant swathes of color dancing over the sky for hours.

The extreme seasons' flip side is the impenetrable darkness of winter, lasting all day and night with only soft dusk for a few daytime hours. But this harsh period of perpetual night provides an utterly awe-inspiring experience: watching the Northern Lights sweep and spiral across the sky like a celestial ballet of greens and purples. The lights arc from horizon to horizon, bending and swirling around one another at alarming speeds. The motion of the spiraling lights in the center of the arc gives one the perception of a living sky, breathing and pulsing.

Question: How do these two paragraphs work together?

They both illustrate contrasting examples of the uniqueness of Greenland's extreme climate.
They both illustrate similar climatic phenomena and how they effect Greenland's environment.
They both illustrate how Greenland's environment affects its economy and cultural arts.
They both illustrate the aesthetic influence Greenland's environment has on Nive's songwriting.

Writing
✓ standard met

Writing prompt: Use a Venn diagram to compare two non-fiction selections on the same topic.

Evaluator

Organization: Certica Solutions

9-10R3

Exemplars

3B: Analyzing Plot/Character

3B: Analyzing Plot/Character

SeeReader ✓ standard met

I-22

Writing ✓ standard met

Evaluator

3C: Analyzing Cause/Effect

3C: Analyzing Cause/Effect

SeeReader ✓ standard met

I-36

Writing ✓ standard met

Evaluator

5A: Examining Text Structure

5A: Examining Text Structure

SeeReader ✓ standard met

I-38

Writing ✓ standard met

Evaluator

5B: Examining Sequence

5B: Examining Sequence

SeeReader ✓ standard met

I-44

Writing ✓ standard met

Evaluator

7C: Interpreting Images

7C: Interpreting Images

SeeReader ✓ standard met

I-34

Writing ✓ standard met

Evaluator

8B: Reasoning

8B: Reasoning

SeeReader ✓ standard met

I-7

Writing ✓ standard met

Evaluator

9A: Comparing/Contrasting

9A: Comparing/Contrasting

SeeReader ✓ standard met

I-35

Writing ✓ standard met

Evaluator

9B: Classifying

9B: Classifying

SeeReader ✓ standard met

I-34

Writing ✓ standard met

Evaluator

3B: Analyzing Plot/Character

3B: Analyzing Plot/Character

SeeReader ✓ standard met

I-12

Writing ✓ standard met

Evaluator

5A: Examining Text Structure

5A: Examining Text Structure

SeeReader ✓ standard met

I-11

Writing ✓ standard met

Evaluator

5B: Examining Sequence

5B: Examining Sequence

SeeReader ✓ standard met

I-19

Writing ✓ standard met

Evaluator

9A: Comparing/Contrasting

9A: Comparing/Contrasting

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I-46

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