R.2
Description:
Determine central ideas or themes of a text and analyze their development; summarize the key supporting details and ideas.
Maps to Reading Plus skills:
1A, 1A, 1B, 2A, 2A, 2C, 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-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
2A: Determining Main Idea
2A: Determining Main Idea
Description:
Determining Main Idea and Themes
SeeReader
✓ standard met
Selection:
K-11
K-11
Grade level: 11
Word count: 2375 words
Author: Diane Lang
Synopsis: Acceptance and compassion go a long way in helping people with Tourette Syndrome.
Excerpt:
No excerpt is available for this question.
Question:
What is the main idea of this selection?
- People with Tourette Syndrome need understanding and acceptance from friends, relatives, and the general public.
- Tourette Syndrome is a neurological disorder for which there are some medical treatments but no known cure.
- Children suffering from Tourette Syndrome should have a place to go to sympathize with one another.
- People with Tourette Syndrome can learn to control their repetitive movements and sounds.
Writing
✓ standard met
Writing prompt:
(Theme: relationships) Describe a character who struggled with society or family and how/if that struggle was resolved.
Evaluator
Organization:
Certica Solutions
2C: Summarizing
2C: Summarizing
Description:
Summarizing
SeeReader
✓ standard met
Selection:
K-11
K-11
Grade level: 11
Word count: 2375 words
Author: Diane Lang
Synopsis: Acceptance and compassion go a long way in helping people with Tourette Syndrome.
Excerpt:
"This year I had the awesome opportunity to travel to Washington, D.C., and undergo training as a TS Youth Ambassador. I thought I was shy, but the training motivated me to voice my cause. Currently, I speak to students throughout the state spreading the word about Tourette Syndrome and urging its acceptance as a medical condition. I encourage you to someday become Youth Ambassadors, educating others and inspiring open-mindedness in your communities.
Question:
What does this selection tell you about the Tourette Syndrome Youth Ambassador Program?
- Ambassadors encourage patience and understanding when interacting with people who have TS.
- Ambassadors develop outgoing personalities, even when they had been shy.
- Ambassadors spread information about research studies that are trying to develop a cure for TS.
- Ambassadors work at camps and other institutions to help people with TS understand their condition.
Writing
✓ standard met
Writing prompt:
Imagine you are an attorney. Prepare a summation of a selection you have read to present to a jury for deliberation.
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?
- 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
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