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Essays should be scored immediately and used for instructional purposes as soon as possible since students in this class will only have two opportunities to retake the FSA (once in September and once in February/March).

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Essays should be scored immediately and used for instructional purposes as soon as possible since students in this class will only have two opportunities to retake the FSA (once in September and once in February/March).

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Analyze a case in which grasping a point of view requires distinguishing whatis directly stated in a text from what is really meant (e.g., satire, sarcasm,irony, or understatement).

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Analyze a case in which grasping a point of view requires distinguishing whatis directly stated in a text from what is really meant (e.g., satire, sarcasm,irony, or understatement).

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This can be a dangerous standard not to master. If students don’t catch on to sarcasm or can’t read between the lines, they risk missing or misinterpreting an important message in the text.

At this level, pinpointing the irony or sarcasm is all about paying attention to contextual clues. Students should be able to identify an author’s tone early on in the reading and red-flag the statements, descriptions, or sentiments that don’t seem to fit.

The standard lays out the most important literary terms that students need to know to master this one. This literary terms webpage gives a great explanation of the difference between satire, sarcasm, understatement and verbal irony under the ‘irony’ listing: http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/english/melani/lit_term.html

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Analyze how an author’s choices concerning how to structure specific parts of a text (e.g., the choice of where to begin or end a story, the choice to provide a comedic or tragic resolution) contribute to its overall structure and meaning as well as its aesthetic impact.

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Analyze how an author’s choices concerning how to structure specific parts of a text (e.g., the choice of where to begin or end a story, the choice to provide a comedic or tragic resolution) contribute to its overall structure and meaning as well as its aesthetic impact.

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This standard asks students to notice and analyze the structure of the writing and the layout of the story. Students will immediately have perceptions about the structure, but they may not be able to articulate the significance of what they notice. If you hear any of the following complaints or grumblings, it means you have a great starting point for discussing this standard:

Ummm…what’s going on? This first chapter just starts with this wedding! Who’s even getting married?

Why does this dude spend the first three pages describing flowers! Like seriously, why is he so obsessed with them?

Miss, I’m lost. This story keeps jumping from one thing to another. I can’t keep up.

These points of confusion are opportunities to ask students to dig further into the text. Like Standard 3, students will need to think like writers here and determine why the author made these structural choices. What is the effect on the reader? How does the structure impact our understanding of the text’s meaning? Could it be that confusion is exactly what the author wanted you to feel here? What might be the purpose for that? Hmm, we hear their wheels turning already. That “aha” moment is just ahead.

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Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in the text,including figurative and connotative meanings; analyze the impact of specificword choices on meaning and tone, including words with multiple meaningsor language that is particularly fresh, engaging, or beautiful. (IncludeShakespeare as well as other authors.)

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Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in the text,including figurative and connotative meanings; analyze the impact of specificword choices on meaning and tone, including words with multiple meaningsor language that is particularly fresh, engaging, or beautiful. (IncludeShakespeare as well as other authors.)

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For all its wordiness, this standard, at its most basic level, is about using good ol’ context clues. Most likely students have encountered versions of this standard throughout their academic career. However, when they get to the last two years of high school, they have to be able to not only figure out the meaning of words, but also decide how specific words influence or change the text. For example, we’ll be asking students to discuss how word choice contributes to tone or influences our interpretations of a text. They’ll also need to identify how word choice adds up to language that is particularly beautiful or musical, as in poetry.

Additionally, in the last years of high school, students should become masters of distinguishing figurative from literal language. This shouldn’t be too hard since their sarcasm skills are likely at peak performance levels, and sarcasm is just another form of non-literal language. The standard requires that students can interpret the meaning of figurative writing and identify connotative meanings or emotional resonances of words. Look out – that’s taking those familiar context clues to a whole new level.

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Analyze the impact of the author’s choices regarding how to develop and relate elements of a story or drama (e.g., where a story is set, how the action is ordered, how the characters are introduced and developed).

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Analyze the impact of the author’s choices regarding how to develop and relate elements of a story or drama (e.g., where a story is set, how the action is ordered, how the characters are introduced and developed).

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If you think about it, an author is a lot like the director of a movie. Authors cast their characters, dress their sets, manipulate dialogue and pacing, determine the sequence of scenes, etc. While they may not have all the Hollywood glam or the cool canvas chair (sad, we know), authors are saddled with just as many nuanced choices to make as film directors. This standard asks students to examine those choices; it asks them to wrestle with complex questions of author’s purpose. Students should be able to step behind the camera and analyze why the author included a particular element or made a stylistic choice. They should be able to discuss how the author’s choices impact the text and the reader’s experience of the text:

What choices cause the reader to like or dislike certain characters?

Why do we trust the blue-eyed charmer and question the brooding, shadowy stranger? The author couldn’t be playing with our preconceived notions, could they?

How does the choice and development of setting create a particular mood?

Why did the author choose to reveal the events of the story in this order?

This is a great time to team up with your friendly, neighborhood Writing Standards for Grades 11-12 since students will need to think like writers in order to accomplish the goals of this standard.

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Determine two or more themes or 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 produce a complex account; provide an objective summary of the text.

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Determine two or more themes or 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 produce a complex account; provide an objective summary of the text.

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This standard asks readers to do three things:

1. Identify themes.
2. Analyze how these themes are developed.
3. Summarize the text.

Notes on Theme

Many readers would define theme as the life lesson or moral of the text. Love is blind. There are no winners in war. We tend to think of theme as those words of wisdom parents try to pass on while teenagers roll their eyes. However, in advanced texts, the themes are usually more complicated than a catchy life lesson and a single text often deals with more than one theme. The old “moral of the story” definition can get students into trouble here.

What should you do about this? Well, at this level, it may be helpful to think about theme as the idea or question that the author is trying to shed some light on. The text may not make a single, well-defined statement about love or war, but you can bet that it does illuminate some aspect of those big ideas. Rather than hunting for a clichéd life lesson, ask students to identify what universal ideas are being examined. By eleventh and twelfth grades, students are expected to craft original and more nuanced theme statements.

Notes on Analysis

Once students have identified a theme, they’ll need to be able to discuss how that theme is developed in the text. Students will need to examine literary elements such as extended metaphors, symbolism, and motifs and show how these elements reveal the theme. They’ll need to connect the plot and the characters’ motivations and realizations to the theme. Basically, students at this level should be able to provide an in-depth analysis that demonstrates how the theme is woven into each aspect of the text. Get out the microscopes because this standard requires an up-close-and-personal reading of the text.

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Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the textsays explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text, including determiningwhere the text leaves matters uncertain.

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Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the textsays explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text, including determiningwhere the text leaves matters uncertain.

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It’s no accident that this is the first reading standard from sixth through twelfth grade. This is the gateway standard, the standard that leads to all other standards. If your students can master this, they are well on their way to mastering many of the other reading standards because they are all about a close reading of the text to support inferential thinking.

This standard asks students to use evidence two ways:

1. Cite strong evidence to prove what the text says explicitly.

2. Cite strong evidence to support inferences, including inferences where there is no clear correct interpretation. In other words, make a case for your interpretation.

When it comes to citing text evidence, we recommend that you don your drill sergeant uniform. Insist that students support their thinking with quotes from the text, whether they are writing about the text or discussing it in class. Will they get tired of it? Yes. Will they complain? Probably. But remind them that the texts they are reading in eleventh and twelfth grade are difficult and complicated. There are many potential interpretations, and you want students to think for themselves and come to their own conclusions about the text. However, they have to be able to defend their ideas. Treat your classroom like a courtroom. Require that students present evidence and build a case for any claim they make. Make it fun, but don’t back down. Your students are about to head into college, and they need to be prepared to enter those upper levels of academic dialogue. The best thing you can do is make them experts at using text evidence.