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11th-12th Grade ELA Assignment

This assignment is partially aligned to the standards.

Overview

Eleventh-grade students read the opening of "A Raisin in the Sun," a well-known play by Lorraine Hansberry, then respond to questions about the first scene. The assignment exposes students to a worthwhile, grade-appropriate text but the accompanying questions are not sufficiently complex to capture the depth of the grade-level standards. While some of the questions are text-dependent, they only require students to discuss personal opinions, restate straightforward content from the text, and make simple predictions.

About the Text

Title and Author

“A Raisin in the Sun” by Lorraine Hansberry

What is the Lexile Level of this text?

As a “non-prose” (NP) text, the play does not have a Lexile level.

Based on Lexile, which grades is this text intended for?

N/A

Is the text qualitatively complex enough for the grade?

Yes

Is this text fiction or non-fiction?

Fiction

Is this text authentic or was it written for educational purposes?

Authentic

Does the text provide sufficient detail to build knowledge of a worthwhile topic and/or is it worth reading closely and re-reading?

Yes

Related Standards

We looked at how well the assignment aligned to the following standards:

RL.11-12.1: 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.

Why is this assignment weakly aligned to this standard?

Most of the questions are text-specific, though the first two questions are not, as they ask students to give personal opinions in loose connection with the play’s themes. All the questions are simplistic (see question 3, for example – “List all the facts you can about the Youngers’ apartment.”) and do not lend themselves to thoughtful responses grounded in evidence.

RL.11-12.2: 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.

Why is this assignment weakly aligned to this standard?

Question 4 (“What do we know so far about the Younger family?”) gets at the main idea of first scene. But there is no expectation that students analyze the development of this idea over the course of the scene, pinpoint deeper themes, or draw on specific details from the text.

RL.11-12.3: 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).

Why is this assignment weakly aligned to this standard?

Questions generally concern setting and characters, but they do not demand analysis of the author’s choices or of the interrelationships among these literary elements.

L.11-12.1: Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English grammar and usage when writing or speaking.

Why is this assignment weakly aligned to this standard?

The task provides some opportunity to practice language conventions through writing. But given that the questions do not prompt substantive, 11th grade-level writing, students’ opportunity to demonstrate command of language conventions is limited.

L.11-12.2: Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English capitalization, punctuation, and spelling when writing.

Why is this assignment weakly aligned to this standard?

The task provides some opportunity to practice with language conventions through writing. But given that the questions do not prompt substantive, 11th grade-level writing, students’ opportunity to demonstrate command of language conventions is limited.

Why is this assignment partially aligned?

This assignment is partially aligned because the text is strong, but the questions are not:

The assignment exposes students to a noteworthy, grade-appropriate play. This 1959 play is historically significant and valuable for students to read: it was the first by an African-American woman to be staged on Broadway, and it’s richly specific about the indignities suffered by many African-American families during the time period. The text offers ample opportunity for meaningful writing and discussion around race and segregation.

The accompanying task gives students little opportunity to demonstrate deep understanding of the text. The questions prompt students to make loose personal connections to ideas in the play, and to recount only basic facts from the text.

Students have no opportunity to use evidence to substantiate their ideas. Students are not asked to use evidence from the text to support their responses.

This assignment could be stronger if it required students to engage in a more rigorous analysis. The questions could prompt students to demonstrate understanding of the first scene’s characterization of the Younger family, as well as the themes and symbols it introduces.

Additional ELA Resources

Common Core ELA Standards
Read the standards and find out what they require of students.
Instructional Shifts in Literacy
Understand the key instructional shifts the ELA standards call for.
Student Work Review Tool – ELA
Use this tool to understand if an assignment is worthwhile for students.