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Language Arts - Secondary Curriculum English Language Arts Grade 11-12
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Reading: Informational Text Standard 1

Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text, including determining where the text leaves matters uncertain.
  • Comic Book Templates: An Entry Point into Nonfiction
    This Teaching Channel video demonstrates how to help your students analyze the structure of informational texts. (8 minutes)
  • Evaluating Eyewitness Reports
    This lesson from EDSITEment offers students experience in making historical meaning from eyewitness accounts that present a range of different perspectives. The lesson asks students to evaluate the reliability of this primary source and to draw up a list of questions they would want to ask and issues they would want to explore before making this eyewitness report part of the historical record. To conclude the lesson, students apply their research skills to present-day eyewitness accounts, gathering published examples or conducting interviews, and produce a report on their value and use as historical evidence.
  • Grade Band 11-12 Performance Assessment
    This sample English Language Arts performance assessment for Grade Band 11-12 covers three texts: 1) Theodore Roosevelt, The Man with the Muckraker 2) Upton Sinclair, The Jungle and 3) Jacob Riis. How the Other Half Lives.
  • Holocaust and Resistance
    In this lesson from EDSITEment, students reflect on the Holocaust from the point of view of those who actively resisted Nazi persecution. Students will learn how the Holocaust happened and understand the devastation suffered by its victims; examine the evidence of resistance to the Holocaust that has been preserved in official documents and by oral tradition; reflect on the responsibilities of individuals when confronted with social policies that violate human rights; consider the significance of the Holocaust in society today.
  • Jefferson vs. Franklin: Revolutionary Philosophers
    In this lesson, from EDSITEment, students deepen their understanding of the documents crucial to the birth of United States democracy as they scrutinize the contributions of two towering figures of the American Revolutionary period and beyond.
  • Perspective on the Slave Narrative
    This lesson plan introduces students to one of the most widely-read genres of 19th-century American literature and an important influence within the African American literary tradition even today. The lesson focuses on the Narrative of William W. Brown, An American Slave (1847), which, along with the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass (1845), set the pattern for this genre and its combination of varied literary traditions and devices. To help students recognize the complex nature of the slave narrative, the lesson explores Brown's work from a variety of perspectives.
  • Sample Student Performance Assessment for Grade Band 11-12
    This sample English Language Arts performance assessment for Grade Band 11-12 covers three texts: 1) Henry David Thoreau. Walden 2) Thornton Wilder. Our Town and 3) Emily Dickinson. VII. ALMOST!
  • Self-Assessment Rubric - Close Reading of Informational Text
    This self-assessment reading rubric will help Grade 11 and 12 students assess their reading of informational text.
  • Using Informational Texts - Section One
    Text Selections based on Text Complexity (Grade Band 11-12)
  • Using Informational Texts - Section Two
    Teacher & Student Editions - Learning Tasks and Cognitive Rigor (Grade Band 11-12)


UEN logo http://www.uen.org - in partnership with Utah State Board of Education (USBE) and Utah System of Higher Education (USHE).  Send questions or comments to USBE Specialist - Naomi  Watkins and see the Language Arts - Secondary website. For general questions about Utah's Core Standards contact the Director - Jennifer  Throndsen.

These materials have been produced by and for the teachers of the State of Utah. Copies of these materials may be freely reproduced for teacher and classroom use. When distributing these materials, credit should be given to Utah State Board of Education. These materials may not be published, in whole or part, or in any other format, without the written permission of the Utah State Board of Education, 250 East 500 South, PO Box 144200, Salt Lake City, Utah 84114-4200.