State SPIs and     ACT College Readiness (bold)

1^st 4 ½ weeks

Course Expectations

·   Demonstrate control of Standard English through the use of grammar, usage, and mechanics (punctuation, capitalization, and spelling).

·   Employ a variety of strategies and resources to determine the definition, pronunciation, etymology, spelling, and usage of words and phrases.

·   Understand and use correctly a variety of sentence structures.

·   Demonstrate critical listening skills essential for comprehension, evaluation, problem solving, and task completion.

·   Summarize, paraphrase, and critique information presented orally by others.

·   Identify the thesis and main points of a challenging speech.

·   Analyze the style and structure of a challenging speech.

·   Understand strategies for expressing ideas clearly and effectively in a variety of oral contexts.

·   Deliver effective oral presentations.

·   Participate in work teams and group discussions.

·   Write in a variety of modes for a variety of audiences and purposes.

·   Employ a variety of prewriting strategies.

·   Organize ideas into an essay with a thesis statement in the introduction, well-constructed paragraphs, a conclusion, and transition sentences that connect paragraphs into a coherent whole.

·   Revise documents to develop or support ideas clearly, address potential objections, ensure effective transitions between paragraphs, and correct errors in logic.

·   Define and narrow a problem or research topic.

·   Gather relevant information from a variety of print and electronic sources, as well as from direct observation, interviews, and surveys.

·   Make distinctions about the credibility, reliability, consistency, strengths, and limitations of resources, including information gathered from Web sites.

·   Write an extended research paper, using primary and secondary sources and technology and graphics, as appropriate.

·   Use a standard format to arrange text, to cite sources correctly, and to document quotations, paraphrases, and other information.

·   Use logic to make inferences and draw conclusions in a variety of challenging oral and written contexts.

·   Analyze text for fact and opinion, cause-effect, inferences, evidence, and conclusions.

·   Evaluate an argument, considering false premises, logical fallacies, and the quality of evidence presented.

·   Analyze the logical features of an argument.

·   Analyze written and oral communication for persuasive devices.

·   Analyze deductive and inductive arguments.

·   Comprehend and summarize the main ideas of informational and technical texts and determine the essential elements that elaborate them.

·   Analyze the organizational structures of informational and technical texts.

·   Read, interpret, and analyze graphics that support informational and technical texts.

·   Evaluate the aural, visual, and written images and other special effects used in television, radio, film, and the Internet for their ability to inform, persuade, and entertain.

·   Examine the agreements and conflicts between the visual (e.g., media images, painting, film, graphic arts) and the verbal.

·   Recognize how visual and sound techniques or design (e.g., special effects, camera angles, music) carry or influence messages in various media.

·   Apply and adapt the principles of written composition to create coherent media productions.

·   Demonstrate knowledge of significant works of world literature.

·   Understand the characteristics of various literary genres (e.g., poetry, novel, biography, short story, essay, drama).

·   Recognize the conventions of various literary genres and understand how they articulate the writer’s vision.

·   Analyze works of literature for what they suggest about the historical period in which they were written.

·   Know and use appropriate literary terms to derive meaning and comprehension from various literary genres

Writing:  DONE THROUGHOUT THE SEMESTER

ü  Proofread a passage for correct punctuation, mechanics, and usage.

ü  Choose the most effective order of sentences in a paragraph.

ü  Choose the transitional device that appropriately connects sentences or paragraphs within a writing sample.

ü  Select a vivid word (e.g., adjective, adverb, verb) to strengthen a written description.

ü  Demonstrate the ability to combine a set of simple sentences into a longer, more interesting sentence.

ü  Determine the most effective placement of information using a prewriting graphic organizer.

ü  Select the thesis statement in a writing sample or passage.

ü  Evaluate the relevance of supporting sentences by deleting an irrelevant sentence in a passage.

ü  Rearrange the order of supporting paragraphs within a writing sample given a specified organizational pattern (e.g., comparison-contrast, chronological).

ü  Identify a statement that reveals the writer’s attitude.

ü  Identify the targeted audience for a selected passage.

ü  Determine the writer’s purpose in a writing sample.

ü  Identify sentences that use effective parallelism within a writing sample.

ü  Select the proper format to convey a set of work-related information.

ü  Select the most precise word to provide clarity appropriate to audience and purpose.

ü  Identify the mode in which a writing sample is written.

ACT College Readiness skills (Write for the Future: Persuasive Essay) DONE THROUGHOUT THE SEMESTER

ü  Present a well-developed introduction and

conclusion

ü  Show clear understanding of the persuasive purpose of the task by taking a position on the specific issue in the prompt and offering a broad context for discussion

ü  Develop most ideas fully, using some specific and relevant reasons, details, and examples

ü  Show clear movement between general and specific ideas and examples

ü  Show clear understanding of the persuasive purpose of the task by taking a position on the specific issue in the prompt and offering a critical context for discussion

ü  Show understanding of the complexity of the issue in the prompt by examining different perspectives, and/or evaluating implications or complications of the issue, and/or posing and fully discussing counterargument to the writer’s position

ü  Maintain a clear focus on discussion of the specific topic and issue in the prompt throughout the essay

ü  Present a critical thesis that clearly establishes the focus on the writer’s position on the issue

ü  Develop several ideas fully, using specific and relevant reasons, details, and examples

LITERATURE: DONE THROUGHOUT THE SEMESTER

ü  Locate words or phrases in a passage that provide historical or cultural cues.

ü  Identify and analyze standard literary elements (i.e., allegory, parable, paradox, parody, satire, foreshadowing, flashback).

ü  Identify classical, historical, and literary allusions in context.

ü  Identify and analyze basic elements of plot (i.e., exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, resolution/denouement).

ü  Differentiate among verbal, situational, and dramatic irony.              Identify and analyze an author’s point of view (i.e., first person, third person, third-person limited, third-person omniscient).

ü  Identify and analyze how the author reveals character (i.e., what the author tells us, what the other characters say about him or her, what the character does, what the character says, what the character thinks).

ü  Determine the significance/meaning of a symbol in poetry or prose.

ü  Differentiate between mood and tone in poetry or prose.

ü  Determine the impact of setting on literary elements (i.e., plot, character, theme, tone.)

ü  Identify and analyze the common theme in a series of passages.

ü  Identify a clear main idea or purpose of any paragraph or paragraphs in uncomplicated passages

ü  Infer the main idea or purpose of straightforward paragraphs in more challenging passages

ü  Summarize basic events and ideas in more challenging passages

ü  Understand the overall approach taken by an author or narrator (e.g. kinds of evidence used) in more challenging passages

ü  Locate important details in more challenging passages

ü  Locate and interpret minor or subtly stated details in uncomplicated passages

ü  Discern which details, though they may appear in different sections throughout a passage, support important points in more challenging passages

 LOGIC:

ü  Make inferences and draw conclusions based on evidence in text.

ü  Evaluate text for fact and opinion.

ü  Analyze cause-effect relationships in text.

ü  Identify a statement that reveals the writer’s biases, stereotypes, assumptions, or values within a writing sample.

LANGUAGE: DONE THROUGHOUT THE SEMESTER

ü  Demonstrate an understanding of the eight parts of speech, including their troublesome aspects, such as how to form the past and past participle of irregular but commonly used verbs.

ü  Identify the patterns of a given set of sentences (i.e., subject-verb, subject-action verb-direct object, subject-action verb-indirect object-direct object, subject-linking verb-subject complement, subject-action verb-direct object-object complement).

ü  Combine a set of simple sentences into a single, compound, or complex sentence.

ü  Use sentence-combining techniques, effectively avoiding problematic comma splices, run-on sentences, and sentence fragments.

ü  Use commas correctly with appositives and introductory words, phrases, or clauses.

ü  Use commas to set off nonessential elements in a sentence.

ü  Correct a run-on sentence by using a comma and coordinating conjunction, subordinate conjunction, or semicolon.

ü  Recognize correct subject-verb agreement with intervening elements.

ü  Recognize a shift in either verb tense or point or view within a writing sample.

ü  Select correct pronoun usage in a sentence (e.g., with compound elements such as between you and me, or following than or as).

ü  Select correct pronoun-antecedent agreement using collective nouns or indefinite pronouns.

ü  Proofread a written passage for errors in punctuation

ü  Recognize the correct placement of end marks and other marks of punctuation with quotation marks used in dialogue.

VOCABULARY:  

ü  Select the appropriate word in frequently confused pairs (i.e., to/too/two, their/there/they’re, it/it’s, you/you’re, whose/who’s, which/that/who, accept/except, affect/effect, between/among, capitol/capital, principal/principle, stationary/stationery, who/whom, allusion/illusion, complement/compliment, cite/site/sight, counsel/council, coarse/course, farther/further, lose/loose, fewer/less, advice/advise, precede/proceed, adapt/adopt, eminent/imminent, assure/ensure/insure).

ü  Use context clues and/or knowledge of roots, affixes, and cognates to determine the meaning of unfamiliar words.

ü  Logic: Choose a logical word to complete an analogy.

Media: 

ü  Draw an inference from a non-print medium.

ü  Select the type of conflict represented in a non-print medium.

ü  Choose a visual image that best reinforces a viewpoint.

ü  Infer the mood represented in a non-print medium.

INFORMATIONAL TEXT:

ü  Discern the stated or implied main idea and supporting details of informational and technical passages.   

ü  Determine the appropriateness of a graphic used to support an informational or technical passage.

ü  Identify the organizational structure of an informational or technical text (e.g., sequential, problem-solution, comparison-contrast, cause-effect).

ü  Synthesize information across two or more informational or technical texts.

Communication:

ü  Determine the most effective methods of engaging an audience during an oral presentation (e.g., making eye contact, adjusting speaking rate).

ü  Select the most appropriate strategies for participating productively in a team (e.g., gaining the floor in orderly, respectful ways and listen with civility to the ideas of others; identify the needs of the team and sharing various resources to respond to those needs; establishing clear group agreements and ensuring appropriate individual contributions are respected by the team).

Technology: DONE THROUGHOUT THE SEMESTER