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9th-10th-Grade ELA Assignment

This assignment is partially aligned to the standards.

Overview

Ninth-grade students read a renowned scientific article called “The Spider and the Wasp,” by Alexander Petrunkevitch and respond to questions about it. Although the text is strong, the questions only ask students to restate basic facts from the text and don’t ask them to draw on specific details and evidence.

About the Text

Title and Author

“The Spider and the Wasp” by Alexander Petrunkevitch

What is the Lexile Level of this text?

1100-1200L

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

9-10

Is the text qualitatively complex enough for the grade?

Yes

Is this text fiction or non-fiction?

Non-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:

RI.9-10.1: Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.

Why is this assignment weakly aligned to this standard?

Assignment directions refer to using “textual evidence.” But questions are of a simplistic recall-and-restate nature (see Question 2, for example – “Where does the wasp sting the tarantula?”) and do not lend themselves to thoughtful responses grounded in evidence.

RI.9-10.2: Determine a central idea of a text and analyze its development over the course of the text, including how it emerges and is shaped and refined by specific details; provide an objective summary of the text.

Why is this assignment weakly aligned to this standard?

The final question (“How are tarantulas protected from extinction?”) gets at the main idea of the text. But there is no expectation that students analyze the development of this idea over the course of the text, nor that they cite specific details.

RI.9-10.10: By the end of grade 9, read and comprehend literary nonfiction in the grades 9-10 text complexity band proficiently, with scaffolding as needed at the high end of the range. By the end of grade 10, read and comprehend literary nonfiction at the high end of the grades 9-10 text complexity band independently and proficiently.

Why is this assignment strongly aligned to this standard?

Students read a text that is appropriately complex and provides useful information and they are expected to answer questions demonstrating their comprehension of the text.

L.9-10.1: 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 directs students to write in “complete sentences,” but given that the questions do not prompt substantive 9th grade-level writing, students’ opportunity to demonstrate command of language conventions is very limited.

Why is this assignment partially aligned?

The text is appropriate for ninth-grade students. Students read an authentic, published journal article about insects’ struggle for survival. It builds their knowledge of a scientific topic and is appropriately challenging in structure, vocabulary, and purpose. The text would be particularly strong if it were part of a larger unit on a cohesive topic (e.g., a study of species survival, endangerment, and extinction).

The questions aren’t designed to build students’ deep understanding of the content and they don’t require students to analyze the text. The questions don’t align with ninth-grade standards.

Students don’t need to support their answers with evidence from the text. The questions only ask students to restate explicit information from the text instead of making claims about the text and supporting those claims with details.

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.