Week 9: Week 9 — Paired Literary Passages: Theme Across Texts
Week of Mon, Jan 11 · week closes Sun, Jan 17
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 2 of MCAP ELA 10 is the literary performance task: two literary passages linked by theme, 6–9 questions, and one constructed response that asks you to compare them.
- A theme is a message about life written as a full sentence. "Loss" is a topic. "Shared work can help people carry a loss" is a theme.
- Two texts can share a topic and still express different themes. State each passage's theme on its own before you try to compare them.
- Themes usually show up where a character changes: a decision, a realization, a final image, or a last line of dialogue. Mark those moments as you read.
- When you compare, name one real similarity and one real difference. The difference is often in how the theme is developed, not in the theme itself.
- Genre shapes how theme is built. A poem may lean on one image, repetition, or a line break; a story may lean on a conflict and how it is resolved.
- Paired questions often ask for a detail from each passage. Check each half of the answer against its own passage, because one strong half can hide a weak one.
- In the constructed response, open with a comparative claim, support it with evidence from both passages, and explain how each detail shows the theme.
Meerk's quiz — open the Week 9 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: Is there an object in our family that carries a memory of someone? What does it tell us that a photo or a story could not?
En español: ¿Hay algún objeto en nuestra familia que guarde el recuerdo de alguien? ¿Qué nos dice que una foto o una historia no podría decirnos?