11-12R1
Description:
Key Ideas and Details
Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly/implicitly and make logical inferences, including determining where the text is ambiguous; develop questions for deeper understanding and for further exploration.
Maps to Reading Plus skills:
1A, 1B, 2B, 4C, 8A, 8B, 9B
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
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.
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?
- to demonstrate he had the ability to show determination and courage
- to remind him that he can rejoin his teams when he gets better
- to show visitors that he had been a star athlete before his injury
- 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
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?
- the deduction of his sister that he took the challenge of the Maroon Bowl
- the Gortex jacket with the tracking reflector left behind in the locker
- the signal from Jake's cell phone before the battery went dead.
- 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
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?
- fixed
- agitated
- grim
- 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
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?
- But for now, I choose to live free of avalanches and high walls, unclogged and uncomplicated by a softer terrain.
- We all misjudged my brother: my parents, his friends, teachers, and even me, his younger sister
- Soon I'll be going off to a university in the Midwest and experiencing a much different climate.
- 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
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.
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?
- At the beginning they represent entertainment and study.
- At the end they symbolize a descent into madness.
- At first they represent man's superior knowledge.
- At the end they represent man's foolishness.
- 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
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."
"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?
- Survival for all depended on working together to keep spirits high.
- A strong leader was needed to establish rules and maintain order.
- Each miner had to find his own way to accept the fate of the dire situation.
- 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