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R.8

Description: Students will delineate and evaluate the argument, specific claims and evidence in a text, assessing the validity, reasoning, relevance and sufficiency.
Maps to Reading Plus skills: 6A, 8A, 8B

Exemplars

8B: Reasoning

8B: Reasoning

Description: Reasoning

SeeReader
✓ standard met

Selection: C-5

C-5

Grade level: 3
Word count: 1270 words
Author: Madeline Arroyo
Synopsis: Fires can help the forest, but more often they destroy it.
Excerpt: Although we usually hear only about the harm a forest fire does, it is a part of the cycle of life on Earth. Some kinds of plants depend on fire to help their growth. During a fire, burned plants release nutrients into the ground. These make the soil rich and help new plants grow. This new growth is good for the forest and the animals that live there.

Question: Which statement from the selection supports the author's claim that sometimes a wildfire can be helpful?
  1. Burned plants release nutrients into the ground.
  2. The sun's heat can set off a fire.
  3. A fire team may battle a wildfire from the air.
  4. A soft wood tree, like a fir tree, will burn fast.

Writing
✓ standard met

Writing prompt: Write three "why" questions about a selection and provide evidence from the text on how those questions should be answered.

Evaluator

Organization: Certica Solutions

6A: Recognizing Author's Intent

6A: Recognizing Author's Intent

Description: Recognizing Author's Purpose

SeeReader
✓ standard met

Selection: J-19

J-19

Grade level: 10
Word count: 2200 words
Author: Beth Renaud
Synopsis: Electronic waste, or e-waste, is the fastest-growing trash in the United States and it is quickly becoming a worldwide problem.
Excerpt: Carroll writes: "Choking, I pull my shirt over my nose and approach a boy of about 15, his thin frame wreathed in smoke. Karim says he has been tending such fires for two years. He pokes at one meditatively, and then his top half disappears as he bends into the billowing soot. He hoists a tangle of copper wire off the old tire he's using for fuel and douses the hissing mass into a puddle. With the flame retardant insulation burned away -- a process that has released a bouquet of carcinogens and other toxins -- the wire may fetch a dollar from a scrap-metal buyer."

Question: In this excerpt, the author includes the quote from Carroll's "High-Tech Trash" article most likely to
  1. illustrate how recyclers are taking advantage of desperate conditions.
  2. describe model recycling practices used in foreign countries.
  3. criticize a young recycler's lack of concern for his health.
  4. highlight an effective process of reclaiming scrap metal.

Writing
✓ standard met

Writing prompt: Describe how the author of an argument tries to prove that he or she is right.

Evaluator

Organization: Certica Solutions

8A: Judging Validity

8A: Judging Validity

Description: Judge Validity

SeeReader
✓ standard met

Selection: J-1

J-1

Grade level: 10
Word count: 2216 words
Author: Randi Bender
Synopsis: Accurate information is crucial during wartime, but disinformation may be just as important.
Excerpt: A simple dinner conversation between a low-level intelligence officer and a civilian friend of questionable loyalties could inevitably lead to the downfall of a long-planned military operation. Spies are endemic during wartime, but the average citizen, carrying just a small scrap of intelligence information, poses a tremendous threat to military operations.

Question: Which sentence explains why the Operation Mincemeat team told sailors that the canister contained a weather device?
  1. A simple conversation between a sailor and a civilian friend of questionable loyalties could lead to the downfall of a long-planned military operation.
  2. The Allies realized they needed to divert German attention away from the chosen landing site, Sicily.
  3. The Germans inevitably would conduct a thorough background check on the body to ensure it was real.
  4. Nevertheless, these leaders also know that there are times when bad information can be quite advantageous.

Writing
✓ standard met

Writing prompt: Think about how an author's bias affects the validity of a claim. Choose a selection you have read and explain whether or not the author's bias has caused him or her to make a false claim.

Evaluator

Organization: Certica Solutions