or social movement, process, era, or event about which historians or social scientists disagree, examining those competing explanations and arguments and drawing conclusions about which explanation or argument is best supported by evidence from the texts they read and where the text suggests a lack of evidence or knowledge.
What is the event, action, or idea about which the texts offer competing positions or explanations?
What evidence do the most credible, objective texts provide?
Where and why is the text unclear, ambiguous, or ambivalent?
9–10 Science/Technical Subjects
Gist: Identify the steps in a complicated multistep procedure, following the directions with precision when measuring, experimenting, or performing specialized tasks; also, use criteria from the text to determine if a situation is exceptional.
What are the specific steps—and the proper order—for this procedure?
What order should those steps go in? How do you know?
What criteria suggest the current situation is an exception?
11–12 Science/Technical Subjects
Gist: Identify the steps in a complicated multistep procedure, following the directions with precision when measuring, experimenting, or performing technical tasks; then use criteria from the text to analyze the results.
What are the specific steps to follow for this procedure?
What order should those steps go in? How do you know?
What criteria does the text offer for analyzing the results?
Common Core Reading Standard 3: What the Teacher Does
To have students analyze how complex characters develop and interact, do the following:
Have students generate a list of all the characters, and then determine, according to the criteria they create, which ones are complex and the nature of that complexity.
Have students build a plot map—individually, in groups, or as a class—noting each time certain key characters interact; analyze who does or says what, in each situation, and its effect on the text.
Identify the motivations of key characters and those points where their motivations conflict with other characters’; then examine what those conflicts reveal about the characters and how they affect the text as a whole.
To have students analyze how key characters advance or develop plots or themes, do the following:
Ask students to locate specific passages or key moments in the text where complex characters do or say something that affects the plot or develops a theme; have them make a claim about how the character affects the text, providing examples and textual evidence.
Create a graphic chart or plot diagram with students and ask them to analyze the plot for moments when characters do something that affects the plot—increase tension, cause change—in a measurable, discernible way. This is sometimes called a “fever chart” to represent the rising and falling action of events in the story.
To have students analyze the impact of the author’s choices regarding story elements, do the following:
Have students list the key choices the author makes about setting, plot sequence, and character development; evaluate all of those within one such category to identify those that impact the story the most, and then examine how and why they do.
Identify key elements in a story and have students change, remove, or otherwise alter some of these elements to understand how they function within or affect the story.
To have students analyze how complex ideas or events interact and develop over time, do the following:
Have students determine which ideas are central to the text and then examine how the words, tone, or imagery used shift over the course of the text to affect the meaning or content of the text.
To have students analyze a series of events where earlier ones caused later ones, do the following:
Have students create a timeline for the text—a list or a more graphic timeline—that shows all the events in sequence, evaluated or ranked by their importance or effect on later events.
Have students highlight or use sticky notes to identify all references to an event so students can retrace the events after reading the document to evaluate how one led to or impacted another.
To have students evaluate various explanations for events in light of textual evidence, do the following:
Provide students a sample that shows the event, its explanations and textual evidence, which students must learn to evaluate by identifying the most fitting explanations and evidence. Then have them find the next event, its explanation, and evidence so they show they can do this independently.
Give students the event or action without the explanations or evidence; then tell them to read the text to find the best explanations and textual evidence; to extend the lesson, have them explain why their explanations and evidence are the best.
To have students analyze the specific results based on explanations in the text, do the following:
Show students how to find and analyze results from their inquiries based on the criteria, legends, or other explanations
Demonstrate for students how you do this with results from a similar or previous experiment.
To help your English Language Learners, try this:
Evaluate the language used in the text, any directions for the assignment, and when discussing the assignment in class, find ways you could make the assignment more accessible.
Preparing to Teach: Connections to My State’s Standards
Common Core Reading Standard 3: Academic Vocabulary: Key Words and Phrases
Actions or events: To understand “actions” think of the verbs your students study: rebel, discover, invent; events are those landmark moments in history or any other field when things change in ways that merit time spent studying them (war, social movement).
Advance the plot:
