The Complete High School Ladder (9-12)

146 core topics + 177 prerequisite topics taught as needed · approximately 107 hours of instruction including spaced review

How the course runs

An adaptive diagnostic (up to 40 questions) places the student on the course's knowledge graph - topics already known are credited, and instruction begins exactly at the learning frontier. Every topic is taught with a worked-example lesson and auto-graded practice; a topic is mastered at 75%+ and then maintained through spaced reviews on an expanding schedule. Mixed checks follow every 6 lessons; each unit ends with a 12-item quiz, and course-wide assessments appear at 25%, 50%, 75%, and 100% mastery. Prerequisite gaps below the course are detected and taught rather than skipped, so completion certifies the whole tower, not just the top.

Core curriculum

Close Reading & Annotation · 9 topics

Say It Straight First [H]	Restate a difficult passage accurately before you interpret it.
The Weight of One Word [H]	Ask why the writer chose this word and not the nearest alternative.
What the Sentence Shape Does [H]	Read the structure of a sentence as part of what it means.
The Image That Carries It [H]	Read a concrete detail or comparison for the abstract work it is doing.
Where the Tone Turns [H]	Name a text's attitude toward its subject, and find where it changes.
What the Text Will Not Say [H]	Draw a conclusion the words on the page require but never state.
The Line That Actually Proves It [H]	Choose the quotation that supports your claim, not the one nearest it.
Reading With a Pencil [H]	Mark a text so the second pass starts where the first one ended.
Where the Reading Stops [H]	Tell a reading the text supports from one you have supplied yourself.

Characterization & Complexity · 8 topics

What a Character Does Instead of Saying [H]	Read a character from conduct, from how other people behave around them, and from what nobody says out loud.
The Reason a Character Will Not Give [H]	Work out what a character actually wants when the reason they offer is not the reason they have.
The Distance Between the Telling and the Told [H]	Measure the distance between what a narrator claims and what the same text shows.
The Object That Does the Work [H]	Read the object, gesture or image that carries what the sentence refuses to state.
Voice as Evidence [H]	Use word choice, sentence shape and sentence length as evidence about the person speaking.
Set Against Each Other [H]	Use one character to see another, without letting the contrast turn into a verdict.
Characters Who Do Not Add Up [H]	Hold two true and incompatible things about one character at the same time instead of choosing between them.
What Changes, and What It Costs [H]	Locate the turn in a character, and say what the change leaves untouched and what it costs.

Theme, Motif & Central Argument · 8 topics

Stating a Theme as a Claim [H]	Write a theme as a sentence somebody could argue with, not a noun.
The Evidence a Theme Rests On [H]	Support a claim about theme with the detail that would break it if removed.
Motif: What Keeps Coming Back [H]	Track a repeating image or word, then say what changes between its first appearance and its last.
When an Object Starts Carrying the Meaning [H]	Read a symbol by the gap between what an object does and what the text keeps it for.
The Central Argument of a Nonfiction Text [H]	Name the one thing a writer wants conceded, as distinct from the subject.
Concession, Rebuttal, and What They Cost [H]	Tell a granted point from a denied one, and say what the writer bought with it.
Two Readings, One Text [H]	Say what a text settles, what it declines to settle, and which reading the evidence rules out.
How a Theme Gets Built [H]	Follow an idea from its first appearance through the place it is complicated to its last.

Narrative Structure, Pacing & Frame · 8 topics

The Shape of the Whole [H]	Name how a narrative is arranged, separately from what happens in it.
Story Time and Telling Time [H]	Separate the order events happened in from the order the text reveals them.
Where the Story Turns [H]	Find the hinge - the point after which the same events mean something else.
Scene, Summary, and the Skipped Year [H]	Read the ratio between page time and story time as a statement of emphasis.
What the Structure Withholds [H]	Treat a missing piece as a shaped choice rather than an accident.
The Story Inside the Story [H]	Read the outer situation that contains a telling, not only the telling.
Strands Set Against Each Other [H]	Read the seam between two strands, where the writer has left the connection out.
How an Ending Works [H]	Judge an ending by what it does to the text behind it, not by what it settles.

Poetry: Form, Meter & Sound · 8 topics

Where the Line Stops [H]	Read a line break as a decision, and say what the break is doing.
The Shape the Poem Agreed To [H]	Identify a poem's form and say what obeying it costs and buys.
Counting the Beat, and What Breaks It [H]	Hear a poem's metrical pattern and read the places where it departs.
Rhyme, Near Rhyme and What They Yoke [H]	Read a rhyme scheme, hear a near rhyme, and say what the pairing does.
What the Sound Is Doing [H]	Name a sound pattern in a line and say what it does to the reading.
The Line That Comes Back [H]	Read a repeated line for what has changed around it.
The Image That Carries the Argument [H]	Read a concrete detail for the claim it is making without stating it.
The Voice and What It Will Not Say [H]	Identify a poem's speaker and read the gap between what is said and known.

Shakespeare & Dramatic Language · 8 topics

Verse, Prose, and the Moment of the Switch [H]	Read the register a character is speaking in, and read what a change of register means.
Soliloquy and Aside [H]	Read a character thinking alone, and treat that thinking as an argument rather than a confession.
The Stage Directions Inside the Dialogue [H]	Reconstruct what happens physically on stage from the lines themselves.
Quibbles: One Word Doing Two Jobs [H]	Read a pun as an argument being made, not as a joke interrupting one.
Image Patterns and What They Argue [H]	Follow an image across a scene and say what claim it is quietly making.
What the Line Does Not Say [H]	Read the meaning a character conveys by refusing to state it.
What the Audience Knows [H]	Track the gap between what the audience knows and what a character knows, and say what the gap does to a line.
Persuasion in Front of an Audience [H]	Analyze a stage speech as a set of moves aimed at the people standing there.

Literary Movements & Historical Context · 8 topics

Reading the Period Off the Page [H]	Name the period habits a text is using from the writing itself, without being told the label.
Evidence for a Claim About a Text [H]	Test a claim about a text against the detail that would actually settle it.
Form Carries the History [H]	Explain what a technical choice about narration asserts about what can be known.
The Moment That Made the Text [H]	Connect what a text worries about to the conditions it was written in - and say how far the connection reaches.
Movements Answer Other Movements [H]	Identify what a text is refusing, and read the refusal as part of its argument.
One Subject, Two Periods [H]	Compare two treatments of the same material and locate exactly where the periods part.
Reading a Text Forward, Not Backward [H]	Keep a later fact, a later word, or a later verdict from being smuggled into a reading.
Who Gets Counted In [H]	Ask how a movement's roster was assembled, and what a roster can and cannot measure.

Irony, Satire & Ambiguity · 8 topics

Verbal Irony: Words Against Meaning [H]	Detect a speaker who means something other than what the words say, and name what the gap is doing.
Situational Irony: Aim Against Outcome [H]	Tell an ironic outcome from a merely unfortunate one by testing it against the aim that produced it.
Dramatic Irony: What the Audience Carries [H]	Track what a reader knows that a character does not, and say what the gap does to the lines that follow.
The Gap Between a Speaker and the Text [H]	Measure the distance between what a speaker claims about himself and what the text puts on the page - including when the distance is zero.
Satire: Finding the Target [H]	Separate what a satire pretends to be from what it wants you to think worse of.
How Satire Works on a Reader [H]	Name the technique a satire is using and say what it buys that a plain complaint could not.
Is It Irony at All? [H]	Decide whether a text is ironic by naming the gap, rather than by how the text makes you feel.
Ambiguity: What a Text Refuses to Settle [H]	Say what a text settles, what it deliberately leaves open, and which readings its evidence rules out.

The Rhetorical Situation · 8 topics

Exigence: What Made This Necessary [H]	Identify the pressure that called a text into being, and separate it from the occasion.
The Audience Under the Audience [H]	Tell apart who a text is addressed to, who it is written for, and who is meant to overhear it.
The Speaker Is a Construction [H]	Describe the version of a writer that a text builds, and why that version fits the situation.
Stated Purpose and Working Purpose [H]	Separate what a text says it is doing from the job it is actually built to do.
What the Writer Was Not Free to Say [H]	Find the limits a situation places on a text, and read what those limits shaped.
Kairos: Why Now [H]	Judge how a text's timing changes what it can accomplish.
The Shape the Medium Demands [H]	Explain how the form a text is delivered in changes what it can and cannot do.
When a Text Changes Situations [H]	Track what happens to a text's meaning when it is carried out of the situation it was written for.

British Literature: Romantic to Modern · 8 topics

The Voice on the Page Is a Made Thing [H]	Work out who is speaking, to whom, and what they want from being believed.
What the Text Will Not Say [H]	Read the meaning a text carries in its evasions, pauses and unasked-for denials.
The Image That Does the Arguing [H]	Read a figure as a move in an argument rather than as an ornament on one.
Tone, and the Distance a Writer Keeps [H]	Hear the attitude a text takes toward its material and toward you.
Form as an Argument [H]	Explain what a form promises a reader, and what a writer's departure from it means.
A Theme Held Open [H]	State what a text argues about how things are, and then test it on the part that resists.
Movements in Argument With Each Other [H]	Read a text against what it was written to oppose, and ask who wrote the label you are using.
The Line That Settles It [H]	Choose the quotation that separates your reading from the nearest rival reading.

World Literature: Epic & Classical Traditions · 8 topics

The Machinery in Plain Sight [H]	Read a repeated phrase, a fixed opening or a stock scene as equipment a performer needs, and then ask where this writer chose to put it.
The Comparison Brings Its Own World [H]	Read an extended comparison as an argument, asking what world it imports and whose side that world turns out to be on.
What the Culture Is Paying For [H]	Work out what a heroic story treats as the reward, and read the hero as an argument a culture is having with itself.
Two Full Explanations, Both Kept [H]	Hold a divine cause and a human cause in the same event without letting one of them cancel the other.
Where the Poem Puts the Cut [H]	Follow how an epic is arranged - the digression, the ring, the delayed return - and say what the arrangement is for.
The Audience Knows First [H]	Track the gap between what an audience has worked out and what a character still believes, and say what the gap is doing.
Who Is Given a Line [H]	Notice who a victory story lets speak, who it keeps offstage, and what the arrangement is doing.
How the Words Got Here [H]	Ask by what route a text reached you, and what the route did to it, before arguing about what it means.

World Literature in Translation · 8 topics

Every Line Is a Decision [H]	Read a translated sentence as one option that somebody selected, and name what the selection ruled out.
Two Versions, One Original [H]	Compare two renderings of the same text and say precisely what each one bought and what it paid.
The Word That Takes a Paragraph [H]	Name the four things a translator can do with a term that has no English equivalent, and what each one costs.
What Happens to the Shape [H]	Track what a poem's meter, rhyme and repetition do when they meet a language that cannot supply them.
The Voice the Translator Picks [H]	Hear the level of a translated voice - formal or plain, warm or official - and ask what the choice does to the speaker.
What the First Readers Already Knew [H]	Spot the knowledge an original audience brought to a text, and judge how a translation handles a reader who does not have it.
The Apparatus Around the Text [H]	Read the title, cover, introduction and notes as arguments about how the book inside should be taken.
Judging a Translation You Cannot Check [H]	Build an argument about a translation using evidence a reader without the source language actually has.

Mythology, Folklore & Archetype · 8 topics

The Shape You Brought With You [H]	Name the pattern you think you are seeing, then test whether it is in the text or in you.
There Is No Original [H]	Treat the text in front of you as one version among others, and say what that version does differently.
The Room the Story Was Told In [H]	Reconstruct the teller, the listener and the occasion before deciding what a traditional story means.
Motif, Symbol, Archetype [H]	Name the level of the thing you noticed, and say what evidence a claim at that level would need.
What the Story Authorizes [H]	Identify what a myth or tale accounts for in the listener's own world, and what would be unsettled without it.
The Lesson That Arrives from Outside [H]	Separate the lesson printed at the end of a tale from what the tale itself shows, and say who attached it.
What a Change of Body Costs [H]	Read a transformation as an event with consequences, and say what the new form is afterward used for.
Who Is Described and Who Speaks [H]	Count who speaks in their own voice, who is only reported, and who appears in a story without appearing in the record of it.

Creative Writing: Fiction · 8 topics

Scene and Summary [H]	Tell a single dramatized moment from a stretch of time compressed, and find the sentence where one becomes the other.
Showing a State, and Only That State [H]	Write behavior a reader can name one particular feeling from, instead of naming it for them or labeling the gesture you just wrote.
Filter Verbs, and the One That Has to Stay [H]	Cut saw, heard, felt and noticed where they only add distance, and keep them where they are the only thing holding a belief apart from a fact.
What This Narrator Can Know [H]	Hold a story to what its narrator can see, hear or think, and tell a character's inference from the narration's own claim.
Tags, Beats and What Goes Between Them [H]	Punctuate a dialogue tag, an action beat, and a quotation interrupted in the middle by its tag.
Information a Character Would Not Say [H]	Spot the line that exists to inform the reader, and tell it from a line that raises the same history for a reason of its own.
The Detail That Does Two Jobs [H]	Choose the concrete detail a reader can reach the withheld conclusion from, instead of a detail that is merely vivid.
What the Scene Changes [H]	Find the sentence where a scene changes what a character knows, what they can still take back, or what the next scene is able to do.

Creative Writing: Poetry · 9 topics

The Image Instead of the Statement [H]	Put a thing in front of the reader's senses instead of naming the feeling you want them to have.
Naming the Figure Exactly [H]	Tell seven figures of speech apart by what each one actually does to the sentence.
What the Sounds Are Doing [H]	Name the sound device a line is built on, and say where in the words the repetition sits.
True, Slant, and Eye Rhyme [H]	Judge a rhyme with your ear instead of your eye, and name the four kinds a poet can use.
Reading a Rhyme Scheme [H]	Label the pattern of line endings in a stanza with letters, including when the rhymes are slant.
Scanning a Line [H]	Count a line's syllables, hear where the stresses fall, and name the meter that results.
Where the Line Breaks [H]	Tell an end-stopped line from an enjambed one, and see what a break does to the words on either side of it.
Fixed Forms and Free Verse [H]	Identify the fixed forms by the promises each one makes about length, repetition, rhyme, and meter.
Revising a Poem [H]	Find the three cuts - the worn comparison, the mixed picture, and the line that explains the poem - that improve a draft more than any addition would.

Journalism & News Writing · 8 topics

The Lede and What It Promises [H]	Read a news lede for the fact it selects and the story it obligates the rest of the piece to deliver.
How a News Story Is Stacked [H]	Explain why a news story is ordered by a reader's need rather than by time, and predict what disappears when it is cut.
Who Says So [H]	Trace every sentence in a report to what the reporter saw, what a document says, or what a person claimed - and notice when a verb adds a judgment.
On the Record, and What Anonymity Costs [H]	Weigh a source by the condition they spoke under, the reason they are unnamed, and what the paper did besides take their word.
What a Quotation Is For [H]	Decide when a speaker's exact words earn their space and when a paraphrase serves the reader better.
News, Analysis, Editorial, Column [H]	Tell the four kinds of newspaper writing apart from the sentences themselves rather than from the label above them.
Balance, Weight and the Manufactured Middle [H]	Separate how much space each side of a story receives from what stands behind each side's claims, and name what the reporting has not settled.
Names, Harm and What a Paper Owes Afterward [H]	Judge a newsroom decision by what it costs the person it lands on, what it gives the reader, and whether the paper disclosed that it made a choice.

Speech, Debate & Oral Argument · 8 topics

Meeting the Argument [H]	Decide whether a reply actually answered the argument in front of it, or landed somewhere beside it.
If It Ends Even [H]	Say which side has to prove what, and what follows when nobody has proved it.
The Sentence That Decides [H]	Find the term whose meaning settles the dispute, and see what each proposed meaning would decide.
What the Question Is Doing [H]	Read a question in a cross-examination or from a bench as a move, and name what it is trying to get.
When Both Sides Are Right [H]	Compare two proved harms out loud, using likelihood, size, timing and whether the thing can be undone.
Giving Ground on Purpose [H]	Recognize a concession as a move, and say what it costs and what it buys.
Evidence, and Labels on Evidence [H]	Separate what a source says from what a speaker says it says, and name the move when the two differ.
Built for the Ear [H]	Explain what a spoken argument does differently because a listener cannot go back.

Film & Visual Rhetoric · 8 topics

What the Frame Left Out [H]	Read an image for the decision at its edges - what was excluded, and what the exclusion does to a viewer.
Everything Inside the Frame [H]	Say what the arrangement inside a shot - light, staging, color, selection - is doing to the viewer's reading of it.
The Argument in the Join [H]	Name the claim a cut makes by placing one shot next to another, and test whether the material supports it.
Speed, Duration, and the Unbroken Take [H]	Work out what a shot's length or speed is asserting, and which questions duration can and cannot settle.
The Track You Are Not Listening To [H]	Separate sound the characters can hear from sound only the audience can, and say what each one is telling the viewer to do.
Whose Account You Are Standing Inside [H]	Identify whose knowledge and whose interests an image places a viewer inside, and how that placement was built.
What an Image Can Prove [H]	State precisely what a photograph or a recording establishes, and where its authority stops.
What the Display Was Built to Answer [H]	Read a chart, poster or graphic as a made argument, without treating every design decision as a trick.

Prerequisite material - taught automatically when the diagnostic finds gaps

Phonological & Phonemic Awareness · 3 topics

Hearing Rhymes	Tell when two words end with the same sound.
Hearing the First Sound	Tell which sound a word starts with.
Words That Begin Alike	Group words by their beginning sound.

Phonics: Letters, Sounds & Short Vowels · 1 topics

Capital and Lowercase Letters

Match every capital letter to its lowercase partner.

High-Frequency Words & Sight Vocabulary · 2 topics

Recognizing High-Frequency Words	Know the most common words on sight, instantly.
High-Frequency Words in Sentences	Use common words correctly inside a real sentence.

Print Concepts & Early Comprehension · 3 topics

How Books and Print Work	Know the parts of a book and which way print goes.
Listening Comprehension	Understand a story that is read out loud to you.
What Happened First, Next, Last	Put the events of a story in the order they happened.

Sentence & Capitalization Basics · 5 topics

What Makes a Sentence	Tell a complete sentence from a group of words.
Naming Part and Telling Part	Split a sentence into who it is about and what happens.
Capital Letters and End Marks	Start every sentence with a capital and end it with a mark.
Choosing the Right End Mark	Use a period, question mark, or exclamation point.
Capitalizing Names	Capitalize names, places, days, months, and the word I.

Context Clues (Grades 2-3) · 8 topics

When the Sentence Just Tells You	Find a word's meaning written into the sentence itself.
A Nearby Word That Means the Same	Use a synonym elsewhere in the passage to unlock a word.
When a Contrast Points the Other Way	Use a contrast word to work out the opposite meaning.
Working Back From Examples	Use a list of examples to work out the category.
When There Is No Clue Word	Work out a meaning from the whole situation.
Naming the Clue	Say which kind of context clue a sentence is using.
Putting Your Guess Back In	Check a guessed meaning by reading the sentence again with it.
Words With More Than One Meaning	Choose the meaning a sentence needs, not the one you thought of first.

Context Clues & Word Nuance (Grades 4-6) · 3 topics

When the Clue Is Somewhere Else	Find the meaning of a word when the clue sits in a different sentence.
Shades of Meaning	Choose the word whose size matches what actually happened.
Words That Carry a Feeling	Hear the approval or disapproval hidden inside a word choice.

Figurative Language & Idioms · 6 topics

Noticing When Words Are Not Literal	Tell when a sentence is not meant exactly as written.
Working Out What It Really Means	Say in plain words what a figure of speech is telling you.
Similes	Read a comparison made with like or as.
Metaphors	Read a comparison that says one thing IS another.
Personification	Spot something not human doing something only people do.
Idioms	Learn set phrases whose meaning the words do not give you.

Story Basics: Character, Setting & Events · 2 topics

Who the Story Is About	Name the characters in a story and say what one of them is like.
How a Character Feels	Name a feeling a story shows through what a character does.

Retelling, Sequence & Summary · 7 topics

Who the Story Is About	Name the character a story follows.
First, Next, and Last	Say what happened first, what came in between, and what came last.
Putting the Whole Story in Order	Arrange all the events of a story from beginning to end.
Finding the Problem	Name what goes wrong in a story.
Finding the Solution	Say how a story's problem gets resolved.
Summarizing a Story	Retell a story keeping only what matters.
Knowing What to Leave Out	Spot the detail a summary does not need.

Story Structure: Problem, Plot & Solution · 4 topics

Beginning, Middle, End	Say which part of a story an event belongs to, and what that part is for.
What a Character Wants, and What Is in the Way	Name both halves of a story problem: the want and the thing blocking it.
The Tries That Do Not Work	Follow the middle of a story as a run of attempts, and say why each fails.
The Moment It Turns	Find the one moment after which a story cannot go back.

Theme, Lesson & Central Message · 8 topics

Topic or Theme?	Tell the subject of a story apart from what the story says about it.
What a Character Learns	Find the theme by watching what a character understands at the end that they did not understand at the start.
The Moral a Story States	Read a stated moral or saying and check what the story actually backs up.
Saying a Theme in One Sentence	Word a theme so it is neither about one character nor true of every story.
The Evidence for a Theme	Point to the detail that actually supports a theme, not just a true detail.
Themes Nobody Writes Down	Work out a theme from an ending, a silence, or a word the writer chose.
Objects That Carry the Message	Read the object or image a story keeps returning to.
What a Story Does Not Say	Refuse a lesson the text will not support, including the tidy one.

Point of View, Narrator & Perspective · 8 topics

Who Is Telling This	Find the teller of a text before deciding what the text means.
How Much the Teller Knows	Work out how far a teller can see, and what is therefore missing.
What the Teller Cannot See	Assemble what a text shows but its teller has not noticed.
What a Person Makes of It	Separate what happened from what a person in the text made of it.
Words That Give a View Away	Notice the single words that carry a teller's attitude.
One Event, Two Views	Explain why two honest accounts of one event can disagree.
Telling It From Somewhere Else	Predict what changes when the same events get a different teller.
Why the Author Chose This Teller	Explain what a writer gains and loses by choosing a particular teller.

Poetry & Drama · 8 topics

Lines, Stanzas and Where a Poem Breaks	Read a poem's shape on the page as part of what it means.
Rhyme, Rhyme Scheme and Poems Without Either	Hear rhyme, name the pattern it makes, and read a poem that has none.
Repetition, Alliteration and the Sound of a Line	Notice what a poem's sounds are doing besides rhyming.
The Picture a Poem Puts in Your Head	Read the sensory pictures a poem or a stage sets, and say what they do.
Figures of Speech Inside a Poem	Read similes, metaphors and personification where poems pack them tightest.
Who Is Talking in a Poem	Identify the voice speaking a poem, and what that voice reveals.
How a Play Is Written Down	Read a script: cast list, scene heading, dialogue and stage directions.
Reading What a Scene Is Really Doing	Work out what characters want, what blocks them, and what they will not say.

Comparing & Contrasting Texts · 6 topics

Comparing on the Same Point	Name one point that both texts speak to before you say anything about either of them.
Two Characters, Side by Side	Compare two characters by what each one decides, not by what each one is called.
Patterns of Events Across Stories	Recognize the shape two stories share, and find the exact place where they stop sharing it.
Same Idea, Different Story	State what each text says about a shared subject, then compare the two statements.
Two Tellers of One Event	Compare who is telling each text and what that teller was in a position to know.
The Same Story in Another Form	Compare what a poem, a play, a story or an explanation can and cannot carry.

Main Idea & Supporting Details · 6 topics

Topic or Main Idea?	Tell what a text is about from what it says about it.
Finding the Main Idea	Say in one sentence what a whole text is telling you.
Main Ideas That Are Not Written Down	Work out the main idea when no sentence states it.
Details That Back It Up	Find the fact in a text that supports a particular idea.
Writing a Summary	Retell a text keeping only what matters.
Telling a Detail from the Main Idea	Spot the sentence that is only a detail.

Text Structure in Nonfiction · 8 topics

Words That Give the Shape Away	Spot the words and sentences that tell you how a nonfiction text is organized.
Description: Groups, Parts and Kinds	Recognize a text that describes one thing closely or sorts things into kinds.
Sequence: Time Order and Steps	Follow a text built on the order things happen or the order they are done.
Compare and Contrast	Read a text that sets two things side by side and says how they are alike and different.
Cause and Effect	Trace a text where each thing described makes the next thing happen.
Problem and Solution	Read a text that states a difficulty and then what was done about it.
Naming the Structure of a Whole Text	Decide which structure a whole passage is built on, and notice when it uses more than one.
Why the Writer Chose That Shape	Explain what a text's structure does for the reader, and what would be lost in another shape.

Author's Purpose & Point of View · 8 topics

Why the Author Wrote It	Name what a text was built to do, not just what it is about.
The Evidence for a Purpose	Point to the move in the text that proves what the writer wanted.
Why This Part Is Here	Explain the job a single paragraph, sentence or phrase is doing.
Who It Was Written For	Work out the reader a text was aimed at, and how you can tell.
The Author's Point of View	Say what the writer thinks about the subject, even when no opinion is stated.
Words That Take a Side	Notice how a writer's wording steers what a reader concludes.
Facts, Judgments, and Honest Uncertainty	Sort what can be checked from what is argued, and spot a writer naming their own limits.
Two Writers, One Subject	Compare two texts on one subject and find the exact point where they part.

Inference, Evidence & Summarizing · 7 topics

Stated or Implied?	Tell what a text says outright from what it only lets you conclude.
What One Detail Tells You	Draw the conclusion a single detail supports, and stop there.
The Line That Proves It	Given a claim, find the sentence in the text that actually supports it.
Putting Two Details Together	Reach a conclusion that no single sentence in the text states.
An Objective Summary	Say what a text argued, in its own terms, without taking a side.
Which Evidence Is Strongest	Choose between two relevant details by asking which one settles it.
Inference or Guess?	Spot the step that goes past what the text can carry.

Integrating Multiple Sources · 8 topics

What Your Sources Are Really About	State the one question a set of sources is answering, precisely enough to compare them.
Where Sources Agree	Find the ground two sources share before you look at where they split.
Where Sources Disagree	Locate the exact sentence where two sources stop agreeing.
A Fact Fight or a Meaning Fight	Tell whether two sources disagree about what happened or about what it means.
What Each Source Chose to Include	Notice what one source puts first, and what another leaves out entirely.
Choosing the Source That Can Answer It	Match a question to the source that is actually able to answer it.
Building One Answer from Several Sources	Write one sentence that holds everything the sources support and nothing more.
What None of the Sources Tells You	Name the question your sources leave open, and what would answer it.

Reading in Social Studies: American History (2-4) · 3 topics

The Main Idea of a History Text	Find what a history passage is really about.
Evidence in a History Text	Point to the detail that actually proves a claim.
Whose Story Is Being Told	Notice whose point of view a history text takes, and who is missing.

Reading in Social Studies: American History (5-6) · 3 topics

Reading a Source Like a Historian	Ask who made a source, when, and what they wanted it to do.
Claims and the Evidence Under Them	Separate what a history text asserts from what it shows.
When Sources Disagree	Compare accounts of the same event instead of trusting one.

Nouns & Verbs · 5 topics

What a Noun Is	Name the words that stand for a person, place, or thing.
Common Nouns and Proper Nouns	Tell a general noun from the name of one particular thing.
What a Verb Is	Name the words that tell what someone does.
Finding the Verb in a Sentence	Pick out the verb inside a whole sentence.
Finding Both Parts	Pick out the noun and the verb in the same sentence.

Sentence Types, Fragments & Run-Ons · 5 topics

Spotting a Fragment	Tell when a group of words stops before it is a sentence.
Spotting a Run-On	Notice when two sentences have been jammed into one.
Three Ways to Fix a Run-On	Repair a run-on, and choose the repair that fits the meaning.
Joining Two Sentences	Combine short sentences with the joining word the meaning needs.
Sentence, Fragment, or Run-On?	Sort any group of words into complete, too short, or too long.

Commas, Quotation Marks & Apostrophes · 4 topics

Commas in a List	Separate three or more items in a sentence with commas.
The Comma After an Opener	Close off a word or phrase that comes before the main sentence.
Commas Around the Person You Are Talking To	Set off the name of the person being spoken to.
Quotation Marks Around What Someone Says	Punctuate a spoken line and the words that tell who said it.

Conjunctions, Prepositions & Complex Sentences · 6 topics

Clause, or Just a Phrase?	Tell an independent clause, a dependent clause, and a phrase apart.
All Seven Coordinating Conjunctions	Choose among the seven - and, but, or, so, for, nor, and yet - by what each one claims.
The Comma Before a Joining Word	When a joining word holds two halves together, the comma goes in only if a whole sentence follows it.
Subordinating Conjunctions	Use because, although, unless, until, and their kin to say how two ideas relate.
Where the Comma Goes in a Complex Sentence	Comma after a leading dependent clause, none after a trailing one.
Simple, Compound, Complex	Name the structure of any sentence by counting its clauses.

Writing Strong Sentences · 6 topics

Knowing When You Have a Sentence	Tell a finished sentence from a piece of one.
Saying More Than the Bare Fact	Add detail that answers a question a reader would ask.
Verbs That Do the Work	Choose a verb precise enough to replace a description.
Naming the Thing Exactly	Replace a category word with the actual thing.
Joining Two Sentences	Put two related sentences together without making a run-on.
Choosing the Right Joining Word	Pick the joining word that states the real relationship.

Paragraphs & Topic Sentences · 2 topics

The Sentence the Others Are About	Find or choose the sentence a paragraph is built on.
Details That Actually Support	Choose detail that backs the claim you made.

Opinion & Argument Writing · 5 topics

A Claim or a Fact?	Tell a position someone could argue with from a fact they could check.
The Reason Under a Claim	Find the sentence that says why a position holds.
Evidence That Actually Proves It	Tell measured evidence from a stronger way of repeating an opinion.
Answering the Other Side	Answer the strongest objection instead of talking past it.
The Shape of an Argument	Name the job each sentence in an argument is doing.

Informative & Explanatory Writing · 6 topics

Explaining or Arguing?	Tell a sentence that explains from one that argues, tells a story, or gives orders.
Saying What You Will Explain	Open a report with a sentence that says what about the subject will be explained.
Putting Facts Where They Belong	Group related facts under the heading that answers the same question.
Sentences That Add Something	Develop a point with real information instead of repeating it louder.
Sounding Like a Report	Keep the writer, the reader, and casual talk out of an explanation.
Your Own Words, the Same Facts	Restate a source's fact in your own wording without changing it.

Narrative Writing · 6 topics

Starting Where the Story Starts	Begin a story inside the moment instead of outside it.
Telling It in an Order a Reader Can Follow	Keep events in order and mark the jumps with real time signposts.
Showing a Feeling Instead of Naming It	Replace a named feeling with something a reader can watch.
The Detail That Earns Its Place	Choose details that do a job instead of filling space.
Dialogue That Does a Job	Keep the lines that change something and cut the ones that do not.
Slowing Down the Part That Matters	Spend sentences in proportion to what a moment is worth.

Revising & Editing · 2 topics

Revising and Editing Are Different Jobs	Tell a change that fixes what a piece says from one that fixes how it is written.
Cutting Words That Do No Work	Cut the words that repeat something the sentence has already said.

Research & Reference Skills · 5 topics

A Question Worth Researching	Turn a subject into a question that sources can actually settle.
Does This Source Answer My Question?	Tell a source that answers your question from one that merely shares it.
Who Wrote It, and Why	Weigh a source by its author, its date and its purpose.
Notes in Your Own Words	Take a note that carries the idea without carrying the sentence.
Naming Where It Came From	Record a source completely enough that a reader could find it.

Reading Fluency & Prosody · 3 topics

What the End Mark Tells Your Voice	Read a line the way its end mark says to read it.
Reading in Groups, Not One Word at a Time	Group the words in a line the way they belong before you read it aloud.
The Word You Lean On	Choose which word to stress, and know what stressing it tells a listener.

Grade 8 Reading & Language · 5 topics

The One Thing It Is All Serving	State the idea a whole text is built to serve when it is never printed, and write a summary that carries the point instead of the best detail.
The Line You Would Put Your Finger On	Pick the one detail that settles a particular claim, and say why the other true details do not reach it.
What the Text Made True Without Printing It	Build an answer the writer never wrote, from clues on the page plus what you know, and stop exactly where the clues stop.
The Shape, and the Job of One Part	Name how a text is built, and explain what one paragraph, line or stage direction is doing in the place where it sits.
What You Know That They Do Not	Track the gap between what you have been told and what a person inside the text knows, in stories and in true accounts alike.

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