W.11-12.10: Managing a Multi-Week Research Project Alongside Short Writing Tasks
In plain English: W.11-12.10 is the Common Core ELA standard that asks students in grades 11 and 12 to write routinely over extended time frames, with time for research, reflection and revision, and over shorter ones, such as a single sitting or a day or two. The range covers discipline-specific tasks, purposes and audiences, from research papers to lab reports.
Write routinely over extended time frames (time for research, reflection, and revision) and shorter time frames (a single sitting or a day or two) for a range of discipline-specific tasks, purposes, and audiences.
Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts & Literacy · Domain: Writing Standards · Cluster: Range of Writing · Official standard
W.11-12.10 asks seniors and juniors to write routinely in two kinds of time: over extended time frames that leave room for research, reflection and revision, and in shorter time frames of a single sitting or a day or two. Its last words, "a range of discipline-specific tasks, purposes, and audiences," matter as much as the time frames: in a real week, a student writes a lab report for a science reader, an email to a professional and a timed essay for an English teacher while a long paper for a public audience moves forward in the background.
This lesson follows one invented senior, Kofi Asante, through a five-week Government research paper written for his county's board of supervisors, and through the short pieces that land on top of it: an email to a county planner, a physics lab report and a timed essay. Students study his plan, his Friday research journal, the week in which his short tasks crowded out the paper, and the revision that the extended time frame made possible. Then they plan a crowded week of their own and repair a weak project plan. Kofi, his teachers, the county and every figure in his writing are invented for this lesson.
Learning Objectives
By the end of this lesson, students will be able to:
Build a backward plan for a multi-week research project, with dated sessions for research, reflection and revision and an hour budget
Fit short writing tasks from several subjects around an extended project, and decide what to write first in a crowded week
Write short pieces in one sitting or a day or two that meet the expectations of their discipline and audience, such as a lab report discussion or a professional email
Explain how research, scheduled reflection and peer feedback changed a draft over time, citing the draft and its revision
Compare planned and actual writing time and adjust a plan in response
Prior Knowledge Required
Students should already be comfortable with:
Writing routinely over extended and shorter time frames in grades 9-10 W.9-10.10
Conducting a sustained research project that synthesizes several sources W.9-10.7
Revising a draft in response to feedback from peers and adults W.9-10.5
Reading an assignment sheet for its checkpoints, audience and requirements
"Think of a long assignment that ended in a late night. On which day did it actually start to go wrong, and what else were you writing that week?"
Take four or five answers and list on the board the short tasks students name. Point out that almost none of the stories are about the long assignment alone: the problem is usually the collision between extended work and short tasks from other classes. Read the standard aloud and underline three phrases: "routinely," the two time frames and "discipline-specific tasks, purposes, and audiences."
Introduce Kofi Asante, an invented senior, and hand out Text 1, his Government assignment and the plan he wrote the same evening. Students mark each checkpoint with the stage it belongs to: research, reflection or revision.
1Assignment, Government 12, handed out Monday of Week 1: Write a research paper of 2,500-3,000 words on a policy question facing Tern County. Use at least eight sources, including at least two primary sources such as interviews, public records or meeting minutes. Checkpoints: research question approved by Friday of Week 1; annotated bibliography of eight sources by Friday of Week 2; outline conference in Week 3; full draft by Friday of Week 4; peer review in class on Monday of Week 5; final paper by Friday of Week 5. Audience: the county board of supervisors, who will read the strongest papers at their spring meeting. Hand in a research journal entry every Friday: what you learned, what is stuck, what comes next.
2Kofi's plan, written that evening: My question: should Tern County bring back passenger trains between Calder Point and Ashby on the old freight line? Working back from Friday of Week 5, I need the draft done a week early, so the outline has to be ready in Week 3 and the research has to be mostly done in two weeks.
3Hours on the paper: Week 1, 3 hours (question, first sources, email to the county transportation planner). Week 2, 4 hours (sources, interview, bibliography). Week 3, 4 hours (outline, conference). Week 4, 5 hours (full draft). Week 5, 3 hours (peer review, revision, final edit). Total 19 hours, in four sessions a week of 45-75 minutes on Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday.
4Other writing I already know about: the physics lab report on pendulums (Week 3, two evenings), the timed rhetorical analysis in English (Wednesday of Week 3, in class, 40 minutes), the 500-word scholarship essay for the Tern County Community Foundation (due Friday of Week 4) and the Friday journal entries.
SVHS lesson authors, Government 12 research assignment and Kofi's five-week plan (Text 1; Kofi Asante, Calder Point High School, Tern County, its towns and its board are invented). Original passage written for this page.
Direct Instruction20 minutes
Show Diagram 1, Kofi's five weeks with one column per school day. The dark bars are the extended paper; the light bars and dots are short pieces written in one sitting or a day or two. Ask which week will be hardest and why, then work through the examples.
Backward planning from the deadline
A four-week Biology literature review is due on the last Friday, with a source list due at the end of Week 1 and a draft conference in Week 3.
Result: Start from the due date: final edit in the last two days of Week 4; revision after the conference, early in Week 4; a full draft before the Week 3 conference; research in Weeks 1-2, with the source list as the Week 1 checkpoint. Each stage gets dated sessions, and the draft is finished a few days before the teacher asks to see it.
Budgeting hours, not just dates
Kofi's plan (Text 1): 3, 4, 4, 5 and 3 hours over five weeks, in four sessions a week.
Result: 3 + 4 + 4 + 5 + 3 = 19 hours across 20 sessions, or about 57 minutes a session. The heaviest week is the drafting week, and the lightest weeks are the first and the last, when the tasks are smaller.
Time-boxing a short task
A 400-word history reading response is due tomorrow, in the middle of the drafting week for an extended project.
Result: Give the response a limit of 40 minutes (5 to plan, 30 to draft, 5 to reread) and write it after the project session, not instead of it. A short piece tends to expand into whatever time it is given, so the limit is what protects the extended work.
One finding, two audiences
Kofi's research reveals that a rail group's ridership figure was inflated. He writes about it for the board of supervisors and for the scholarship committee.
Result: For the board: the corrected figure and what it means for the vote, in the paper's formal, third-person style. For the scholarship committee: a first-person account of learning to check a number before trusting it, because that reader is judging the writer, not the policy.
Reflection as a scheduled step
A Friday research-journal entry for a different project, a report on a town's water rates.
Result: "Learned: the rate rose twice in five years, not once. Stuck: the 2021 council minutes are missing online. Next: call the city clerk on Monday, and draft the history section while I wait." A good entry names what was learned, what is stuck and the next action with a day attached.
Read Kofi's journal (Text 2) together. Students mark every sentence where Kofi reflects (names a problem or a change of plan) rather than reports. Then read his email to the planner (Text 3), which he wrote in one sitting in Week 1, and ask why it had to be written that early.
1Week 1, Friday. Question approved, with a change. Dr. Pell asked me to narrow it from "bring back passenger trains" to "whether the county should pay for a two-year trial of weekday commuter trains." It is a better question because the board can actually vote on it. I emailed Ms. Anand, the county transportation planner, on Tuesday. She answered on Wednesday, and we meet next Thursday. Stuck: nothing yet. Hours: 3.
2Week 2, Friday. Eight sources in the bibliography, but only one primary source so far, the county's 2019 transit survey. The interview with Ms. Anand will be the second. Stuck: the rail group's flyer says 800 people a day would ride, and the transit survey suggests about half that. I don't know which to trust. Next: ask Ms. Anand how the survey counted riders. Hours: 4.5.
3Week 3, Friday. This was the week I planned for, and it still went badly. The lab report took Monday and Tuesday evenings, including the Tuesday session I had set aside for the outline, the rhetorical analysis was Wednesday, and I spent Thursday night, my other outline session, on the scholarship essay because I panicked about it. I worked on the paper for one hour all week, and I went into the outline conference with a list of sources instead of an outline. Dr. Pell told me to stop treating the paper as the thing I do when everything else is finished. Next: in Week 4 the paper gets the first hour of every evening, before any other homework, and the scholarship essay gets two sessions, not five, because a 500-word essay does not need five. Also figured out the flyer: it counted each round trip as two riders. Hours: 1.
SVHS lesson authors, Kofi's Friday research journal, Weeks 1-3 (Text 2; Dr. Pell, his Government teacher, and Ms. Anand, the county transportation planner, are invented). Original passage written for this page.
1Subject: Interview request from a Calder Point High School student
2Dear Ms. Anand,
3I am a senior at Calder Point High School, and I am writing a research paper for my Government class on whether Tern County should bring back passenger trains between Calder Point and Ashby. The strongest papers will be shared with the board of supervisors at its spring meeting.
4Could I interview you for 20 minutes, in person or by phone, at a time that suits you next week? I would like to ask two questions: how the county estimated ridership in its 2019 transit survey, and what a new service would need to show in its first years to be kept.
5Thank you for considering my request.
6Kofi Asante Grade 12, Calder Point High School
SVHS lesson authors, Kofi's email to the county transportation planner, written in one sitting on Tuesday of Week 1 (Text 3). Original passage written for this page.
Guided Practice15-20 minutes
Discipline switch. Kofi's lab report discussion (Text 4) was written over two evenings in the collision week, for a reader who knows physics. Pairs list three features that mark it as science writing: a claim tied to the prediction, figures with units, and a limitation explained with its effect on the result. Then they look at Diagram 2, which compares Kofi's planned and actual hours on the paper week by week.
1Discussion. Our results support the prediction that the period of a simple pendulum depends on its length but not on the mass of the bob. As the length increased from 0.25 m to 1.00 m, the period increased from 1.02 s to 2.02 s. At a length of 0.50 m, changing the mass from 50 g to 200 g changed the period by at most 0.02 s, which is within our timing uncertainty of about 0.03 s per period.
2A graph of the period squared against length was close to a straight line through the origin, as the model predicts. The slope of the best-fit line through the origin, 4.08 s²/m, gives a value of g = 4π²/slope = 9.68 m/s², about 1% below the accepted value of 9.80 m/s².
3Two limitations affect these results. First, we measured each length from the pivot to the top of the bob rather than to its center, so every length was slightly too short; this would make the slope too large and our value of g too small, which matches the direction of our error. Second, we timed only one set of ten swings for each length, so we could not estimate the spread of our measurements. A repeat of the experiment should measure to the center of the bob and time three sets of ten swings at each length.
SVHS lesson authors, Discussion section of Kofi's physics lab report on pendulums, written over two evenings in Week 3 (Text 4; the data are invented). Original passage written for this page.
Next, pairs read the two openings of Kofi's paper (Text 5), with the peer reviewer's note between them. They write down what the revision does for the board that the draft does not, and which stage of the extended time frame (research, reflection or revision) supplied each change. Take one answer from each pair.
1Draft opening, Friday of Week 4: In 1956 the last passenger train ran on the Tern Valley line between Calder Point and Ashby. Since then the tracks have carried only freight, and people in Calder Point have had to drive the 26 miles to Ashby for work, court dates and the county hospital. Many people have talked about bringing the train back, and there are many arguments on both sides. This paper will look at the history of the line, the costs, the ridership and the opinions of different groups, and then it will decide whether passenger rail should return.
2Peer reviewer's note on the draft, Monday of Week 5: Your readers are the supervisors. They know the history of the line better than you do. I did not find out what you think until page 4.
3Revised opening, Wednesday of Week 5: The board of supervisors should fund a two-year trial of weekday commuter trains between Calder Point and Ashby, and it should decide in advance what ridership would justify keeping them. The trial would cost about $2.4 million, according to the county's transportation planner, and her estimate of 310 to 420 weekday riders, each making a round trip, puts the cost at about $6.60 per trip at the middle of that range. That is more than the county's bus subsidy of about $4.10 per trip. A trial is still worth funding, because it is the only way to test the estimate: the one figure that seemed to settle the question, the 800 daily riders claimed by the Tern Valley Rail Alliance, counted each round trip as two riders. If ridership falls short of the level the board sets, the trial ends after two years and the county has its answer.
SVHS lesson authors, Two versions of the opening of Kofi's paper, with a classmate's peer review note (Text 5; the classmate, the rail group and all costs and ridership figures are invented). Original passage written for this page.
Independent Practice15 minutes
Hand out Text 6, a crowded week for another invented senior, Lucía. Each student writes a day-by-day plan for her week (Monday to Sunday) that fits her 7 hours: what she writes each day, for how long, in what order, and how the extended report moves forward. Students then write the first three lines of whichever piece they scheduled for Monday. The quiz also uses Text 6.
1Lucía's extended project is a four-week Environmental Science report on where the rain that falls on the school parking lot ends up. Its full draft is due next Friday, and two sections are still unwritten. She has about 7 hours outside class for writing this week, and the week contains all of these:
21. Chemistry lab report on reaction rates, due Wednesday. The data were collected in class on Monday.
32. Timed argument in English 12, in class on Thursday, 45 minutes.
43. College application short answer, 150 words. The application portal closes Sunday at midnight.
54. Email to the city's stormwater engineer. On Monday he offered to answer three questions by email if she sends them this week.
65. Research journal entry for Environmental Science, due Friday.
76. The two unwritten sections of the Environmental Science report.
SVHS lesson authors, One crowded week: Lucía's writing list (Text 6; Lucía Ferraro and everyone and everything in her list are invented). Original passage written for this page.
Closure5-10 minutes
Exit ticket: (1) Name the extended piece of writing you have due next, and write the date of your next session for it. (2) Name one short piece due in the same window, its audience and its discipline. (3) Write one sentence of the Friday journal entry you expect to write this week: what is stuck, and what you will do next.
Differentiation Strategies
For Struggling Students
Give a partly filled five-week planning grid with the checkpoints from Text 1 already placed, so students add only the sessions and hours
Provide a three-line journal frame: "Learned: ... Stuck: ... Next (with a day): ..."
Let students plan Lucía's week from a ranked list of her tasks before they build the day-by-day plan
For Advanced Students
Ask students to write the scholarship paragraph Kofi might have written about the ridership figure, then compare its style with the revised opening in Text 5
Have students plan two overlapping extended projects in different disciplines and show how the research weeks are staggered
Ask students to rewrite the limitation paragraph of Text 4 for a general newspaper reader and explain what they cut
Assessment Guidance
What to Look For
Look for plans that start from the deadline and date every stage, with the draft finished before the last checkpoint and at least one scheduled pause for reflection. In a crowded week, look for a sensible order of tasks, short tasks given a time limit, and the extended piece given a fixed slot rather than leftover time. In short pieces, look for discipline conventions: a lab discussion with a claim, figures with units and an explained limitation; an email with a clear request and a respectful close. Across the unit, the evidence of the standard is the pattern: frequent writing, both time frames and several kinds of readers.
02
Classroom Activities
3 Activities
1
Backward Planning Workshop
20 minPairs
Pairs build a backward plan for an extended assignment from its assignment sheet, with dated sessions for research, reflection and revision and an hour budget for each week.
Assignment Sheet
U.S. History, three weeks: a 1,500-word paper on how one local business or institution changed between 1900 and today, for the town historical society's newsletter. Checkpoint 1, end of Week 1: three sources, one of them a primary source. Checkpoint 2, middle of Week 2: a thesis and outline. Final paper: last Friday of Week 3.
Procedure
Write the due date at the right edge of a three-week grid, then place the two checkpoints
Working backward, place revision sessions, a full-draft date that leaves at least three school days before the due date, drafting sessions and research sessions
Mark one day with no work on the paper, right after the full draft, and a Friday journal entry each week
Give each week an hour budget and check that the hours match the sessions you placed
Trade plans with another pair, who find the week most likely to go wrong and say why
Discussion Questions
Why should the full draft come before the last checkpoint rather than on it?
The newsletter's readers are local residents, not teachers. Which session in your plan exists because of that audience?
Where would a primary source that takes a week to arrive fit in your plan?
2
Collision Week Triage
20 minGroups of 3
Groups receive eight task cards that all land in the same week as an extended project checkpoint. They order the tasks, give each one a time limit, and write the one message the week requires to someone outside the class.
Task Cards
1. Economics: a one-page response to a news article, due Tuesday
2. Biology: lab report, data collected Monday, due Thursday
3. English: timed essay in class on Wednesday
4. Extended project: annotated bibliography due Friday, three sources still unread
5. A museum archivist has offered to scan two documents if you email her the catalog numbers
6. Student government: a 150-word announcement for Friday's assembly
7. Research journal entry, due Friday
8. A thank-you note to a teacher who wrote your recommendation letter
Procedure
Sort the cards into three piles: depends on someone else, due soonest, and flexible
Lay the cards on a Monday-to-Friday strip with a time limit on each; the extended project must appear on at least three days
Write the email to the archivist in eight minutes, in one sitting, with a subject line, a clear request and a close
Each group explains one hard choice to the class
Discussion Questions
Which card did every group start with, and why?
Which card could move to next week without harm? Who decides that?
What changes in your writing when the reader is an archivist instead of a teacher?
Modification for Distance Learning
Put the cards on a shared digital board. Each group drags them onto a week grid and types the archivist email in a shared document with a visible timer.
3
Discipline Switch
20 minIndividual, then pairs
Students write three short pieces in three disciplines, 6 minutes each, from the same small data set, then compare how the conventions change with the reader.
Data Set (invented)
A class measured how long a 20 g ice cube took to melt in 200 mL of water at four starting temperatures: 20 °C, 212 s; 30 °C, 151 s; 40 °C, 118 s; 50 °C, 96 s.
Procedure
Piece 1, for a science teacher: a three-sentence discussion that states the pattern, gives two figures with units and names one limitation
Piece 2, for the school news site: three sentences that make the result interesting to students who were not in the class
Piece 3, for a sixth-grade science class: three sentences that explain what the experiment shows in plain words
Pairs trade and label each piece with the features that fit its reader: vocabulary, sentence length, voice and the kind of evidence
Discussion Questions
The melt time fell at every higher temperature. Which of your three pieces needed the exact figures, and which did not?
Which piece was hardest to write in 6 minutes, and why?
What would a science reader want to know that the other two readers would not?
03
Diagrams & Visual Aids
2 diagrams
Diagram 1: Kofi's Five Weeks, One Column per School Day
One column per school day. The top four rows are the stages of the extended research paper (research, outline and conference, full draft, peer review and revision), placed from the checkpoints in Text 1. The lower rows are the short pieces around it: the email to the planner and the interview, the physics lab report (two evenings), the timed rhetorical analysis (one 40-minute sitting), three sessions on the scholarship essay and the Friday journal entries. The dashed box marks Week 3, when the outline, the lab report, the timed analysis and a scholarship session all landed in the same five days.
Diagram 2: Planned and Actual Hours on the Paper
Each light bar is the hour budget from Kofi's plan, and each dark bar is the time he recorded in his Friday journal, both drawn at 40 pixels per hour. Week 3 fell far short of the plan. In Week 4, after he moved the paper to the first hour of every evening, he worked more than he had planned.
04
Homework Assignment
~30 min
W.11-12.10 Homework: Plan, Repair and Reflect
Directions: Work in two sessions of about 30 minutes this week. Do Parts 1 and 2 in the first session, using Yara's plan (Text 7) in Independent Practice, and Part 3 in the second. Date each session and note its length at the top of your work.
Part 1: Your Own Project (Problems 1-2)
Choose an extended piece of writing you have due in the next three to six weeks in any class. Write a backward plan with every checkpoint, dated sessions for research, reflection and revision, a full-draft date before the last checkpoint, and an hour budget for each week.
List every short piece of writing you know is due in the same weeks, from at least three subjects. For each, name its time frame (one sitting or a day or two), its audience and one convention of its discipline, then mark the week most likely to become a collision week and explain one change to your plan that protects the extended piece that week.
Part 2: Repair Yara's Plan (Problems 3-4)
Name three problems in Yara's plan (Text 7). For each, quote the words in the plan that show it and explain which part of the extended time frame (research, reflection or revision) it damages.
Rewrite Yara's plan week by week so that research, a full draft, a day away from the draft and revision all happen before the due date, and so that her Week 3 short tasks and the thank-you letter each have a day and a time limit.
Part 3: Short Pieces for Real Readers (Problems 5-6)
In one sitting of 15 minutes, write the thank-you letter to Yara's internship supervisor at the county library. Mention one specific task from the internship (you may invent it) and one way it will help her in the research essay. Note your start and finish times.
At the end of the week, write a Friday journal entry for your own extended project with three parts (learned, stuck, next, with a day), and compare the hours you planned this week with the hours you actually spent, in one sentence that names the reason for any difference.
Rubric
Criterion
Full Credit (2 pts)
Partial Credit (1 pt)
No Credit (0 pts)
Extended Planning
Backward plan with dated research, reflection and revision sessions, an early full draft and hour budgets
Plan has dates but skips a stage or has no hours
No plan
Range and Collisions
Short pieces from three or more subjects labeled by time frame, audience and convention; a collision week identified and addressed
Short pieces listed with some labels missing, or the collision is not addressed
No list
Repair of Yara's Plan
Three problems quoted and tied to a stage; a rewritten plan that fixes each one
Problems named without quotation, or a rewrite that fixes only one
No repair
Short Pieces and Reflection
Letter fits a professional reader and names a specific task; journal entry has all three parts and compares planned and actual hours
Letter or entry is generic or missing a part
Either piece missing
05
Quiz: 20 Questions
Interactive, with answers
Instructions
The questions use Texts 1-5 and the diagrams from the lesson plan, and Lucía's week (Text 6) in Independent Practice. Paragraph numbers refer to the numbered paragraphs of each text. Your score updates as you answer, and Reset quiz clears everything so you or your students can try again.
Multiple choice: pick an option to check it. Short answer: write your answer, then reveal the model answer.
0 of 20 answered · 0 correct
Question 1 of 20 · Multiple Choice
According to W.11-12.10, what makes Kofi's Government paper an extended time frame?
Answer: C
The standard defines an extended time frame by what the time is for: "research, reflection, and revision." Kofi's checkpoints (sources, Friday journal entries, the conference, peer review and a final revision) supply all three. A confuses calendar time with process; a paper left alone for five weeks and written in one night would be short-time-frame writing. B invents a word count, and D is about grading, which the standard does not mention.
Question 2 of 20 · Multiple Choice
Who is the audience named in Kofi's assignment (Text 1, paragraph 1)?
Answer: B
The assignment says, "Audience: the county board of supervisors, who will read the strongest papers at their spring meeting." A and C name readers of the draft along the way (the grader and the peer reviewers), not the audience the paper is written for. D names a source, not a reader.
Question 3 of 20 · Multiple Choice
Kofi planned 19 hours on the paper. His journal (Text 2) records 3, 4.5 and 1 hours in Weeks 1-3. How many hours did he have left to reach his plan after Week 3?
Answer: D
He had spent 3 + 4.5 + 1 = 8.5 hours, and 19 - 8.5 = 10.5 hours. A uses the planned hours for Weeks 1-3 (3 + 4 + 4 = 11) instead of the actual ones, giving 19 - 11 = 8. B is the time already spent, not the time left. C leaves out the 1 hour from Week 3 (19 - 7.5 = 11.5).
Question 4 of 20 · Multiple Choice
Why did Dr. Pell narrow Kofi's research question (Text 2, paragraph 1)?
Answer: A
Kofi writes that the narrower question "is a better question because the board can actually vote on it." B, C and D have no support in the text, and D is contradicted by his plan to interview the planner.
Question 5 of 20 · Multiple Choice
What went wrong for Kofi in Week 3 (Text 2, paragraph 3)?
Answer: B
The lab report took "the Tuesday session I had set aside for the outline," the scholarship essay took Thursday, "my other outline session," and he "went into the outline conference with a list of sources instead of an outline." A is wrong because he attended the conference. C contradicts paragraph 1, where the interview is set. D has no support in the text; the analysis happened on Wednesday as planned.
Question 6 of 20 · Multiple Choice
Which change did Kofi make for Week 4 (Text 2, paragraph 3)?
Answer: C
He writes that "the paper gets the first hour of every evening, before any other homework, and the scholarship essay gets two sessions, not five." A, B and D describe changes he did not make; the Friday journal is a required part of the assignment.
Question 7 of 20 · Multiple Choice
Kofi wrote his email to Ms. Anand (Text 3) in one sitting. Which feature best fits a professional reader who owes him nothing?
Answer: C
The email asks for "20 minutes, in person or by phone, at a time that suits you" and names "two questions," so the reader knows exactly what she is agreeing to. A and D are not in the email and would make his deadline her problem. B is not in the email either; a history of the line would bury the request.
Question 8 of 20 · Multiple Choice
Which sentence in Kofi's lab report discussion (Text 4) explains how a limitation affected the result?
Answer: D
D traces the effect of measuring to the top of the bob: lengths too short, a slope too large and a value of g too small, which matches the 1% low result (paragraph 3). A states the claim. B describes the graph. C reports data. None of them names a limitation.
Question 9 of 20 · Multiple Choice
In a pendulum lab like Kofi's, g = 4π²/slope, where the slope is from a graph of period squared against length. If a group's slope were 4.00 s²/m, what would their value of g be?
Answer: C
4π²/4.00 = π², which is about 9.87 m/s². A is 4π², the numerator alone, without dividing by the slope. B is 4π/4.00 = π, which forgets to square π. D inverts the formula (4.00/4π² is about 0.101).
Question 10 of 20 · Multiple Choice
What does Kofi's revised opening (Text 5) do first that his draft opening does not?
Answer: B
The revision begins, "The board of supervisors should fund a two-year trial," which answers the peer reviewer's complaint, "I did not find out what you think until page 4." A, C and D are all features of the draft opening, not the revision.
Question 11 of 20 · Multiple Choice
Suppose ridership in the trial were at the low end of the planner's estimate in Text 5: 310 weekday riders, each making one round trip (2 trips) a day, for 500 weekdays. What would the $2.4 million trial cost per trip?
Answer: B
The trips total 310 × 2 × 500 = 310,000, and $2,400,000 ÷ 310,000 is about $7.74. A counts riders instead of trips (310 × 500). C uses the middle of the range, 365 riders, instead of the low end. D counts four trips per rider instead of two.
Question 12 of 20 · Multiple Choice
On Monday of her crowded week (Text 6), which piece should Lucía write first?
Answer: D
The engineer offered to answer questions "if she sends them this week," so every day she waits shortens the time his answers can reach the report, which is due next Friday. A is due last, on Sunday. B is due Friday. C matters, but the sections will be better once the engineer's answers arrive, and she can draft them later in the week.
Question 13 of 20 · Multiple Choice
Lucía has about 7 hours outside class for writing this week (Text 6). Which plan protects her extended report and still meets every short deadline?
Answer: A
A adds up to 0.5 + 2 + 1 + 0.5 + 3 = 7 hours, gives the report three hours, and fits every short task. B spends all 7 hours on the lab report, the application answer and the journal, so the report gets no time at all this week, and the email has no time in the budget. C budgets no hours for the lab report or the application answer, so writing them the night before would push her past her 7 hours, and it never sends the email the engineer needs this week. D skips a required journal entry and gives the report only one hour.
Question 14 of 20 · Multiple Choice
Which sentence best fits Kofi's paper, written for the board of supervisors?
Answer: A
A speaks to the board's decision, gives a specific figure and keeps a formal, third-person tone suited to a policy paper. B is personal and informal. C makes an unsupported claim in a casual voice. D announces a topic without saying anything about it, the same problem as the draft opening. (The target of 350 riders is invented for this question.)
Question 15 of 20 · Short Answer
A four-week English 11 research essay is due on the last Friday, with a source list due on the Friday of Week 1 and a draft conference on Wednesday of Week 3. Write a week-by-week plan that includes dated sessions for research, reflection and revision and puts the full draft before the conference.
Model answer: Week 1: research on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday; source list turned in Friday. Week 2: notes and outline on Monday and Tuesday; draft on Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday. Week 3: finish the draft Monday; no work on it Tuesday; conference Wednesday; journal entry Friday on what the conference changed (reflection). Week 4: revise Monday through Wednesday; edit Thursday; turn in Friday. Rubric line: 2 points for dated sessions for all three stages, a full draft before the Week 3 conference and the source list on time; 1 point if a stage is missing or the draft comes after the conference; 0 for no dates.
Question 16 of 20 · Short Answer
Suppose that on Wednesday of Week 3 Kofi realizes he will not have an outline for his conference, which is set for Thursday. In one sitting of 10 minutes, write a short email to Dr. Pell asking to move the conference back by two school days. Use what you know from Texts 1 and 2.
Model answer: "Subject: Outline conference, Government research paper. Dear Dr. Pell, My physics lab report took Monday and Tuesday evenings, including the session I had planned for my outline, so I do not yet have an outline worth your time. Could we move my conference from Thursday to Monday? I will bring a full outline and my eight annotated sources. Thank you, Kofi Asante." Rubric line: 2 points for a clear subject, an honest reason, a specific new time and what he will bring, in a respectful tone; 1 point if the request or the reason is vague; 0 for an informal or demanding message.
Question 17 of 20 · Short Answer
A class timed a mass on a spring (invented data): 0.10 kg, 0.63 s; 0.20 kg, 0.90 s; 0.40 kg, 1.25 s. Write a three-sentence discussion for a science reader that states the pattern, gives figures with units and names one limitation with its likely effect.
Model answer: "The period of the spring increased with the mass, from 0.63 s at 0.10 kg to 1.25 s at 0.40 kg. Each doubling of the mass multiplied the period by about 1.4 (0.90/0.63 is 1.43 and 1.25/0.90 is 1.39), which is close to the square root of 2 that the model predicts. Because we tested only three masses and timed each one once, a single timing error could change the ratio, so repeated trials at more masses would make the pattern more certain." Rubric line: 2 points for the pattern, at least two figures with units and a limitation tied to its effect; 1 point if the limitation is missing or has no stated effect; 0 for a sentence with no data.
Question 18 of 20 · Short Answer
In Week 2, Kofi was stuck on two ridership figures that did not match (Text 2, paragraph 2). Trace how that problem moved through his extended time frame, and explain where the result appears in his revised opening (Text 5) and what it does for the board.
Model answer: The Week 2 journal entry names the problem ("I don't know which to trust") and a next step, asking Ms. Anand how the survey counted riders; that is reflection. By the Week 3 entry, research had solved it: the flyer "counted each round trip as two riders" (paragraph 3). In the revised opening, Kofi uses the finding to show the board that "the one figure that seemed to settle the question" is misleading, which is why he argues for a trial that will test the planner's estimate instead. Rubric line: 2 points for the problem, its resolution and its use in Text 5, each tied to a stage and supported with a quotation; 1 point if one link in the chain is missing; 0 for a general answer.
Question 19 of 20 · Short Answer
By Tuesday night of her crowded week (Text 6), Lucía has sent the email to the engineer and drafted half of her lab report. Write her plan for Wednesday through Sunday, with a time limit for each piece, and explain in one sentence where the report sections go and why.
Model answer: Wednesday: finish the lab report before school (45 minutes) and turn it in; draft the first report section after school (60 minutes). Thursday: timed argument in class; application short answer after school (40 minutes). Friday: research journal entry (20 minutes), using the engineer's answers if they have arrived. Saturday: draft the second report section (75 minutes). Sunday: reread and submit the application answer before the portal closes (15 minutes). The report sections go on Wednesday and Saturday, the two days with no other deadline pressure, so the extended project moves forward instead of waiting for a free evening. Rubric line: 2 points for every remaining deadline met, a time limit on each piece and at least two report sessions with a reason; 1 point if one of these is missing; 0 for no plan.
Question 20 of 20 · Short Answer
Using Diagram 2 and Kofi's journal (Text 2), explain what the difference between his planned and actual hours in Weeks 3 and 4 shows, and what a writer should take from it.
Model answer: In Week 3 Kofi planned 4 hours and worked 1, because short tasks took the evenings he had set aside (Text 2, paragraph 3). In Week 4 he planned 5 and worked 6.5, after he gave the paper the first hour of every evening. The lesson is that an extended project needs a fixed slot that short tasks cannot take, not the time left over after everything else. Rubric line: 2 points for both weeks' figures, the cause from the journal and a general lesson; 1 point for the figures or the cause alone; 0 otherwise.
0 of 20 answered · 0 correct
06
Frequently Asked Questions
10 Questions
What does W.11-12.10 mean?
W.11-12.10 means that students in grades 11 and 12 write often, both over extended time frames and in short ones, for many kinds of tasks, purposes and readers across their subjects.
Extended time frames leave room for research, reflection and revision, as in a multi-week research paper. Short time frames are a single sitting or a day or two, as in a timed essay, an email or a lab report due in two days.
Is W.11-12.10 the same as W.9-10.10?
Yes: the two standards have exactly the same wording.
What grows is the writing students do under it. By grades 11 and 12, the other writing standards ask for more sustained research and more demanding arguments, and students usually carry several extended projects at once in different classes. Managing that load, not just writing in two time frames, is where many seniors need help.
What does "discipline-specific" mean in W.11-12.10?
It means the range of writing includes the forms each subject expects, with that subject's conventions.
A physics lab discussion ties a claim to a prediction, reports figures with units and explains how a limitation affected the result. A policy paper is organized around the decision its readers face. An email to a professional states who the writer is and exactly what is being asked. Students should practice switching between them.
How is W.11-12.10 different from WHST.11-12.10?
WHST.11-12.10 applies the same idea to writing in history, science and technical subjects, and its extended time frame mentions reflection and revision but not research.
W.11-12.10 is the English language arts version and includes research in the extended time frame. In practice, many schools share the work: the English class teaches the planning and reflection habits, and other classes supply many of the discipline-specific tasks.
How do students manage a long project when short assignments keep coming?
They plan backward from the deadline, give the project a fixed time slot each week, and put a time limit on each short task.
A short task can usually be written with a timer in one sitting. An extended project fails when it gets only the time left over after short tasks are done. A weekly reflection that compares planned and actual hours shows the problem early.
What should go in a research journal entry?
A useful entry records what the writer learned, what is stuck and the next action, with a day attached.
Hours spent are worth recording too, because they show whether the plan is realistic. The entry is short, often five or six sentences, and it is where the reflection part of the extended time frame becomes visible to the teacher.
How is W.11-12.10 assessed?
W.11-12.10 is usually assessed across a semester or year through a body of work rather than in a single test.
Teachers look at portfolios, project logs and journals for writing in both time frames and for a range of tasks, purposes and audiences. Timed, on-demand writing on classroom and state assessments gives evidence of the shorter time frame; check your state's released tasks for their formats and time limits.
Should teachers grade the planning and journals, or only the final paper?
Grading at least some checkpoints is worth it, because the standard is about the process over time, not only the product.
A light score for a dated plan, a source list on time and weekly journal entries tells students that these steps count. It also gives the teacher early warning when a student's plan has collapsed, as Kofi's did in Week 3.
Does college application writing fit W.11-12.10?
Yes: application essays and short answers are writing for a real audience, usually written in a short or medium time frame.
They are a good example of adjusting to a reader who is judging the writer rather than a topic. Planning them into the calendar alongside class projects, rather than on the night before a portal closes, is exactly the routine the standard asks for.
How can parents help with W.11-12.10 at home?
Ask to see the plan for your student's next long project and which day this week is set aside for it.
When a crowded week comes, help your student list every task with its due date and a time limit, and encourage an early email to a teacher if a checkpoint is at risk. Reading a draft a day after it was written and asking one outsider's question also helps.
07
Related Standards
5 standards
These standards connect to W.11-12.10: prerequisites to review first, parallel standards at the same level, and next steps that build on it.
Before this lesson
W.9-10.10Prerequisite
Write routinely over extended and shorter time frames in grades 9-10
