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Descriptive Statements:
- Demonstrate knowledge of general academic vocabulary and content-specific vocabulary in context.
- Apply knowledge of syntactic rules, word structure, and contextual analysis to determine the denotative and connotative meanings of words and phrases.
- Demonstrate knowledge of effective, research-based reading strategies to use before, during, and after reading a text for a particular purpose.
- Demonstrate knowledge of strategies for constructing meaning from multiple types of texts at varying comprehension levels (i.e., literal, inferential, evaluative, and synthesis).
- Demonstrate knowledge of the components of reading fluency and how they affect reading comprehension.
Sample Item:
Before reading John Steinbeck's novel The Grapes of Wrath, students view Dorothea Lange's photographs of the Dust Bowl in Oklahoma and migrant camps in California on the Library of Congress website. In addition, students read excerpts from eyewitness accounts and newspapers from that time period. Finally, they create a chart recording what they have learned and what they would like to know more about. These prereading activities will primarily deepen students' understanding of the novel in which of the following ways?
- raising students' awareness of the causes of the Dust Bowl
- building students' background knowledge about the Dust Bowl
- familiarizing students with new vocabulary related to the Dust Bowl
- helping students find reliable primary sources related to the Dust Bowl
Correct Response and Explanation (Show Correct ResponseHide Correct Response)
B. John Steinbeck's novel The Grapes of Wrath is set in Oklahoma and California during the 1930s Dust Bowl. The novel's central characters are the Joads, a displaced farm family who travel from Oklahoma to California in search of a new start. Dorothea Lange's photographs from the period depict the hardships experienced by farmers and their families. Viewing Lange's photographs and reading primary sources from the period would build students' knowledge of the Dust Bowl from multiple personal perspectives, thus deepening their understanding of the novel's setting and its characters.
Descriptive Statements:
- Analyze organizational structures and text features of informational and argumentative texts.
- Analyze the development of the central ideas, positions, and claims in informational and argumentative texts.
- Assess the credibility, objectivity, and reliability of sources referenced in informational and argumentative texts.
- Evaluate the relevance, importance, and sufficiency of evidence, examples, and reasons provided to support the central ideas, claims, or counterclaims in informational and argumentative texts.
- Recognize objective summaries of informational and argumentative texts.
- Interpret graphic features used in informational and argumentative texts, including, but not limited to, tables, graphs, and charts.
- Distinguish between facts and opinions presented in informational and argumentative texts.
- Analyze the use of rhetorical devices and techniques in argumentative texts.
Sample Item:
Read the excerpt below from an article; then answer the question that follows.
Home ownership has long been a cornerstone of the so-called American dream, but the path to home ownership has changed dramatically in recent years. Gone are the days when prospective home buyers pored over real estate listings in the local newspaper, circling promising properties in red ink. Leisurely Sunday drives in search of "for sale by owner" signs are a thing of the past. Buying a home is a giant step on the ladder of life, and people used to take it slowly. Today, all you need is a screen and a website. You scroll through real estate listings. You click on photos. You take virtual tours. You furnish virtual rooms with virtual furniture. And before you can say "bidding war," you own a home in which you have never set foot.
Which of the following statements best describes how a rhetorical device is used in the excerpt?
- Alliteration emphasizes the desirability of home ownership.
- Metaphors suggest that buying a home is a sign of maturity.
- Anaphora creates a sense of urgency and builds momentum.
- Hyperbole underscores the complexity of real estate transactions.
Correct Response and Explanation (Show Correct ResponseHide Correct Response)
C. Anaphora is a rhetorical device in which the first word or phrase of successive clauses is repeated. In the excerpt, the sentences beginning "you scroll…," "you click…," "you take…," and "you furnish…" use repetition to create a sense of urgency that mirrors the urgency experienced by prospective home-buyers.
Descriptive Statements:
- Recognize characteristics of various literary genres.
- Analyze how literary devices and techniques contribute to meaning, narrative point of view, tone, and mood in literary texts.
- Analyze the use and impact of structural elements in fiction, drama, and poetry.
- Determine the denotative, connotative, and figurative meanings of words and phrases in literary texts.
- Analyze how word choice affects meaning, tone, or mood in literary texts.
- Analyze the development and interaction of plot, setting, and character in literary texts.
- Determine the themes of literary texts.
- Analyze the representation of various values, perspectives, and beliefs in literary texts.
- Analyze how authors from a range of backgrounds and time periods have explored significant social and political events and issues through their literary works.
Sample Item:
Read the excerpt below from "Tears," a poem by Walt Whitman; then answer the question that follows.
Streaming tears, sobbing tears, throes, choked with wild cries;
O storm, embodied, rising, careering with swift steps along the beach!
O wild and dismal night storm, with wind—O belching and desperate!
O shade so sedate and decorous by day, with calm countenance and
regulated pace,
But away at night as you fly, none looking—O then the unloosen'd ocean,
Of tears! tears! tears!
Which of the following figures of speech is used in the excerpt to emphasize the passionate nature of the speaker's appeal?
- synecdoche
- hyperbole
- simile
- apostrophe
Correct Response and Explanation (Show Correct ResponseHide Correct Response)
D. An apostrophe is a rhetorical figure used to address directly and explicitly an abstract or inanimate entity. In the excerpt, the speaker addresses a night storm, the wind, and the "unloosen'd ocean."
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