Week 10: Week 10 — Paired Informational Passages: Comparing How Authors Treat a Topic
Week of Mon, Jan 18 · week closes Sun, Jan 24
This week's items
Exact due times are in Canvas. Each week opens on its Monday and stays open. Practice is never late — but the MCAP window opens April 5, 2027, so keep pace.
Know these cold
- Section 3 of MCAP ELA 10 is the informational performance task: two informational passages linked by topic, 6–9 questions, and one constructed response that asks you to use both.
- Two authors can write about the same topic and treat it very differently. One may explain, another may argue; one may praise, another may warn.
- Start with each passage on its own: What is the central idea? What is the author's purpose? Who is the author, and what perspective might that give them?
- Next, sort the overlap. Find at least one point the authors agree on and at least one point where they disagree or emphasize different things.
- Pay attention to evidence. One author may lean on statistics and studies, while another uses a single person's story or a quotation from an expert.
- Structure and word choice reveal treatment. Chronological order, problem and solution, or cause and effect each frame a topic differently, and words like "stitch together" and "torn up" set very different tones.
- When a question asks how Passage 2 "challenges" or "adds to" Passage 1, look for a fact or argument in Passage 2 that complicates a specific claim in Passage 1.
- In the constructed response, write a claim that names how the authors' treatments compare, then support each side with evidence from the correct passage.
Meerk's quiz — open the Week 10 gate
10 questions, no time limit. One counted try: 85% opens the gate. Miss it and Meerk's Study Path opens: it teaches every miss back to you, then a mastery check — and it cannot finish before 25 minutes of real study. Then your second try opens. Work alone; the point is to know it, not to have seen it.
Stuck?
Raise your hand. Mr. James gets a message right away and can help you remotely. Nothing else is stored — just your last name, grade, and where you're stuck.
My Progress
Dinner Table Question
Ask at home: Think of a news story that people in our family see differently. What does each person focus on, and why might they see it that way?
En español: Piensen en una noticia que las personas de nuestra familia ven de manera distinta. ¿En qué se fija cada persona y por qué podría verla así?