5th Grade - Gateway 3

The materials reviewed for Amplify Science Grade 5 meet expectations for providing teacher guidance with useful annotations and suggestions for how to enact the student materials and ancillary materials, with specific attention to engaging students in figuring out phenomena and solving problems. Materials provide comprehensive guidance that will assist the teachers in presenting the student and ancillary materials. Examples from all units include:

• The Teacher Guide, Unit Overview introduces a real-world problem, which serves as the anchor phenomenon, and its relevance to our lives. It also gives an overview of how students will build knowledge in order to solve a new problem.

• The Teacher Guide, The Progress Build explains how knowledge about the phenomenon deepens as the students progress through the unit, specifically noting bolded statements.

• The Teacher Guide, Getting Ready to Teach specifically details what the teacher needs to do to prepare Before You Present the Lesson, While You Present the Lesson, and After You Present the Lessons.

• All Chapters, Lessons, Digital Resources, Classroom Slide|Powerpoint and the Google Slides suggest teacher talk and teacher actions.

• All Chapters, Lessons, Lesson Brief, Activity, Instructional Guide, Step-by-Step provides the instructional strategy and precise teacher talk and teacher action. 

• All Chapters, Lessons, Lesson Brief, Activity, Instructional Guide, Teacher Support provides background information about the three dimensions of the Next Generation Science Standards featured in the activity as well as the Rationale behind the teacher action and instructional suggestions. 

• The Teacher Guide, Unit Overview, Printable Resources, Coherence Flowcharts provide teachers with a graphic organizer for each chapter in the unit “that helps students see the connections between the phenomena and questions that drive students’ experiences, the evidence they gather, the ideas they figure out, and the new questions that those ideas generate.”

• All lessons, Overview, Lesson at a Glance briefly describe student activities and suggested time allocation for each activity. 

The instructional guides for each lesson from Grade 5 include suggestions about instructional strategies and guidance for presenting the content, which often includes identifying, with limited room for more targeted approaches to addressing student naive conceptions. Examples from all units include:

• The Teacher Guide, Progress Build Section(s) provide prior knowledge (preconceptions) that students may bring to the lesson, foundational knowledge needed for student understanding and growth throughout the lesson, and progress build levels describing conceptual growth that students are expected to experience throughout the unit.

• The Teacher Guide, Eliciting and Leveraging Student’s Prior Knowledge, Personal Experiences, and Cultural Backgrounds, supports teachers by introducing the phenomenon and consistently eliciting students' initial ideas related to the phenomenon. Also, this resource provides support for teachers to document ideas throughout the units on a class chart for ongoing reference and to help students add, revise, and reflect on their ideas. 

With regard to addressing how to support students in figuring out phenomena and/or solving problems, the materials support the teacher in seeing connections between the phenomena and questioning, but miss the opportunity to clearly articulate/illustrate how the students’ understanding of the phenomenon deepens throughout. Evidence of connections between phenomena and questioning includes:

• The Teacher Guide, Unit Overview, Printable Resources, Coherence Flowcharts provide teachers with a graphic organizer for each chapter in the unit “that helps students see the connections between the phenomena and questions that drive students’ experiences, the evidence they gather, the ideas they figure out, and the new questions that those ideas generate.” 

• Within each Activity, there is also an Instructional Guide with step-by-step guidance that is present for teachers to support their understanding of which Science and Engineering Practices (SEPs) are the focus and how to support students in using them as students figure out the phenomena or solve the problems. 

All units conclude by asking students to apply the knowledge acquired throughout the unit to a new problem. Teachers are provided support via the PowerPoint slides and include suggested teacher talk to frame how engineers solve problems, in context with the ideas students learned and also teacher action to help students consider and discuss solutions.

The materials reviewed for Amplify Science Grades 5 meet expectations for containing adult-level explanations and examples of the more complex grade-level concepts and concepts beyond the current course so that teachers can improve their own knowledge of the subject. The materials include support for teachers to develop their own understanding of grade-level concepts and content knowledge beyond the scope of the current course. 

Support for teacher understanding is present across all units. The Teacher Guide section, Science Background provides adult-level science background related to the unit. This section contains expository explanations of scientific background for the three dimensions of NGSS pertaining to the unit, with grade-level appropriate student background as well as common preconceptions by both students and adults. The Teacher Guide explicitly states that the information is meant to guide the teacher in teaching the correct content, but is not meant as student-facing material.

Also in the Teacher Guide, Planning For the Unit, Digital Resource Tab, Unit Map, there is an outline of the expected student practices for each Chapter. It presents a Chapter guiding question with an explanation for the teacher regarding how the students will develop understanding through lesson activities. 

The Teacher Guide, Science Background provides detailed adult-level science background regarding each unit’s science content along with a description of the extent to which this content is to be shared with students. The Science Background section includes cited references to inform teachers of the pedagogical research-based approaches to support grade-level content delivery as it is presented in the materials. In the Connections to Future Learning section of the Science Background, there is support for teacher content knowledge beyond scope of the current course. For example, in Grade 5, Unit: The Earth System, Planning for the Unit, Science Background, Connections to Future Learning, there are detailed paragraphs on how this content connects to learning to come in middle school as well as high school. It provides adult level explanations about the flow of energy and the cycling of matter through Earth's systems such as "In middle school, students learn that all Earth processes are the result of energy (from the sun and from Earth’s hot interior) flowing and matter cycling within and among the planet’s systems. The processes that occur within a system are limited by the supply of energy (the ability to make things move or change) and matter (anything that has mass and takes up space). For example, your body cannot function properly without an input of matter (food) and energy (via the chemical breakdown of food). Therefore, tracking fluxes of energy and matter within, into, and out of systems can be helpful in understanding the way a system is working. Looking at the interactions between energy and matter can even further elucidate natural phenomena. For example, the water cycle involves flows of matter (water) between the atmosphere and the surface and underground reservoirs of water on Earth, which are driven by energy transfers (e.g., sunlight that causes evaporation). Examining transfers and cycles of energy and matter is an important aspect of understanding any human-built or natural system."

The materials reviewed for Amplify Grade 5 meet expectations for including standards correlation information, including connections to college- and career-ready ELA and mathematics standards and that explain the role of the standards in the context of the overall series. The materials contain NGSS correlation information in multiple locations. All grades contain examples in the Teacher Guide:

• Planning for the Unit and Standards at a Glance include a listing of the NGSS Performance Expectations (PEs), Science and Engineering Practices (SEPs), DIsciplinary Core Ideas (DCIs), and Crosscutting Concepts (CCCs) addressed in the Unit. 

• Teacher References, 3-D Statements outline three-dimensional statements for the unit level, the chapter level, and the lesson level of each unit for all grades.  

• Lesson Guide, Overview, and Standards sections provide a listing of the NGSS PEs, SEPs, and CCCs that are addressed in the lesson. The Lesson Progression at the beginning of each unit shows how each NGSS standard connects to and builds upon the previous grade level.  

The materials also include an explanation for the role of the NGSS standards in the context of the overall series. The Teacher Guide, Teacher Reference, Standards and Goals lists the PEs, SEPs, DCIs and CCCs that are covered in the unit. This section also provides an explanation of the core ideas across the K-8 grade span of the materials in a subsection titled “Trajectory of Core Ideas.”

The materials also provide lists of corollary Common Core ELA and mathematics standards. The Teacher’s Guide, Planning for the Unit, Standards at a Glance  and Standards and Goals (under Teacher References) all list the corollary Common Core ELA (CCSS-ELA) and Common Core Math (CCSS-Math) standards addressed in each unit. Lesson Guide, Lesson Brief, and Standards include a list of the CCSS-ELA and CCSS-Math addressed in each lesson. The materials offer suggested connections with ELA and/or Math and consistently provide specific explanations regarding how the standards are aligned with the context of the lesson and/or series. For example, in Grade 5, Unit: Patterns of Earth and Sky, Teacher References, Standards and Goals there are detailed paragraphs on how this content connects to the common core English Language Arts standards and the common core math standards. It provides adult-level explanations of the role of the specific grade-level/grade-band science, ELA, and mathematics that are present in the context of the series. Each CCSS-ELA and CCSS-Math standard has one to two examples of where the standard is addressed throughout the unit. An ELA example states, "Students have the opportunity to write explanatory texts to convey information about when stars are visible and why. For example, in Lesson 1.7, students write a scientific explanation to answer the question, Why don’t we see a lot of stars in the daytime? In Lesson 3.5, students write to explain how the movement of Earth affects which constellations are visible at different times of the year." A math example states, "Students have the opportunity to read and write about measurements that include decimals. In Lesson 1.4, students read and write about the distance of the sun from the Earth (0.000016 light-years). In a Going Further activity in the same lesson, they compare this decimal to other decimal distances. In Lesson 2.4, students read about weights that include decimals in the book, Which Way Is Up?"

The materials for Grade 5 meet expectations for providing explanations of the instructional approaches of the program and identification of the research-based strategies. The materials explain the instructional approaches of the program. Evidence of this can be found throughout the grades, units and lessons. In each Unit Overview, Teacher References, and Standards and Goals section the materials explain an instructional approach that incorporates the strategies of Do, Talk, Read, Write, and Visualize in coordination with the NGSS crosscutting concepts (CCCs) and the disciplinary core ideas (DCIs) associated with the specific unit of instruction. These strategies are further explained in each Lesson with more explicit detail. Examples at the Grade 5 level include:

• Grade 5, Unit: Modeling Matter, Lesson 2.2, Activity 2, SIM Figuring Out How to Do the Simulation demonstrates the “Do” approach. Students share a digital device as students explore the simulation freely before the teacher points out features important to the task. The Technological Note in the Teacher Support section for this activity states that sharing devices with a 1:2 ratio is intentional in order to promote talk between students during investigations.

• Grade 5, Unit: Modeling Matter, Lesson 2.3, Activity 2, Teacher Guide, Lesson Brief Teacher Support demonstrates the “Read” approach. In the Literacy Note: Gradual Release of Responsibility, it states, “In this lesson, the teacher models making an inference with the first part of the text. The inference should be fairly clear to students because of their recent experiences in the classroom with dissolving. By giving this inference as an example, the teacher reminds students of the strategy of making inferences and helps them see how they can use this strategy with the text. Making inferences while reading is left deliberately open-ended; partners should talk with each other about the inferences they can make as they read the text so they can gain practice with this cognitive strategy. You may need to prompt students to pause while reading to think about each section of the book and try to draw their own conclusions.”

• Grade 5, Unit: Modeling Matter, Lesson 2.5, Activity 2, Critical Juncture: Making Models of Mixing demonstrates the “Write” approach. Students write their evidence in a chart with scaffolds. In the first column, students need to indicate a range between one and five. In the second column, students need to circle one of four phrases that describe how mixed the two substances are, and in the third column, students write a constructed response to the question, What is your evidence?

The materials provide some explanation for the research-based strategies that are used in the design of the program. While the Program Guide, Science Program Guide, Designed for the NGSS, and Program Development sections explain the Do, Talk, Read, Write, Visualize pedagogical approach that drives Amplify Science, there is a missed opportunity to incorporate explicit citations or references in the teacher materials. Instead, the references for “Research Behind the Program'' exist on a website outside of the teacher materials.

The materials for Grade 5 meet expectations for providing a comprehensive list of supplies needed to support instructional activities. In the Teacher’s Guide, Unit Overview, Planning for the Unit, Materials and Preparation section for each unit, a thorough list of the materials needed over the course of each chapter and lesson is present. Every list includes the quantity needed to support a class of 36 students, a description of each item and in which lessons the item(s) will be used. It also contains a comprehensive list of materials that need to be provided by the teacher or school, the quantity needed, item description and the lessons requiring these materials.

In addition to the unit overview, each Lesson Brief contains a lesson-level Materials and Preparation section outlining the materials needed for the class, groups of students and/or individual students and preparations needed before the start of each lesson.  

The materials for Grade 5 meet expectations for embedding clear science safety guidelines for teachers and students across the instructional materials. In the Unit Overview, Printable Resources section, an Investigation Notebook is provided for student use. Each Investigation Notebook contains a section titled, “Safety Guidelines for Science Investigations.” It is important to note that teachers should always locate and adhere to local policies and regulations related to science safety in the classroom. In each Unit Overview, Materials and Preparation, Materials at a Glance section, there is a reminder: “Note: Check and follow your district’s safety regulations pertaining to the use of proper equipment and procedures for students participating in hands-on science activities.”  

Additional safety notes are located in the teacher print or digital materials within lessons which have specific safety notes for the teacher to communicate to students. 

One example of an additional safety note includes:

• Grade 5, Unit: The Earth System Unit, Lesson 2.7, provides a specific safety note regarding the use of hot water. “Safety Notes: (1) This lesson involves the use of a small amount of hot water. Do not provide students with boiling water. Instruct students to handle the hot water carefully. (2) Remind students to be careful when getting plastic wrap from the Materials Station. The cutting edge is sharp. You may suggest they use scissors to cut the plastic wrap rather than the box edge.”

The assessment materials for Grade 5 are comprehensively designed and aligned within the Units. It is clear for teachers where the assessments are, the type of assessments that are provided, and to what standard(s) each assessment opportunity is intended to be aligned. For instance, in the Grade 5 Teacher’s Guides, any unit, Teacher References, Assessment System, each assessment opportunity throughout the Unit is listed in a chart in relation to the Lesson, type of assessment, and NGSS standard intended to be assessed. In addition, in the Teacher Guide for every Grade 5 Unit, under Printable Resources, there is a document titled 3-D Assessment Objectives This document contains the 3-D Statements and accompanying objectives, their pertinence in the unit, and the type of assessment aligned to that objective. “Each table includes the Disciplinary Core Ideas (DCIs), Science and Engineering Practices (SEPs), and Crosscutting Concepts (CCCs) included in that Performance Expectation and specifies the location of assessments associated with these three dimensions.”

The materials provide information detailing how assessments build toward the standards for the grade level or band. In the Teacher Guide of each Unit, Teacher Reference, Assessment System, Monitoring Progress section, there is a discussion of Critical Juncture Assessments with an outline of each Critical Juncture concept and assessment in each Unit. The Critical Juncture assessments provide the teacher with specific three-dimensional statements to assess before moving forward in the Lessons. Lessons that provide Critical Junctures or On-the-Fly Assessments also provide an Assessment Guide or a Hands-On Flextension Lesson Guide in the Lesson Brief, Overview, Digital Resources section which states the DCI, SEP, and CCC.

In addition to listing intended standards alignment in the Teacher Guide of all Units, Teacher References, Assessment System, and the Formative and Summative Assessment Opportunities sections list the DCI, SEP, and the CCC addressed in each assessment. These also include strikethroughs of the portion of the standard that is not assessed in the Unit. While strikethroughs indicate which portion of the standard is not being assessed, there is a missed opportunity to state how the assessments contribute to building toward the end of grade-level performance expectations.

The materials for Grade 5 meet expectations for providing an assessment system with multiple opportunities throughout the grade, course, and/or series to determine students' learning, sufficient guidance for teachers to help them interpret student performance, and suggestions for following-up with students.  

Examples include:

• In each Unit, the Assessment Guide for the End-of-Unit Assessment provides three rubrics, one each for the DCI, SEP, and CCC as well as questions to support teachers in determining students’ initial understanding of the standards identified for each assessment. For example, Grade 5, Unit: Modeling Matter, Lesson 3.7, Assessment Guide: Assessing Students’ End-of-Unit Explanations About Emulsifiers in Salad Dressing states students are at a level two for performance of the practices of constructing explanations and obtaining, evaluating, and communicating information if “The writing goes beyond describing the observable interactions of the ingredients to propose: why the oil and vinegar initially separated but the addition of the lecithin resulted in mixing and why different molecules interact in different ways.” For the disciplinary core idea, students may earn up to three points if they show, “understanding that substances are made of particles that are too small to be seen,” “understanding that the particles that make up materials have properties that explain why ingredients sometimes mix,” and “understanding that the particles that make up materials have properties that explain why ingredients sometimes separate.” Sample evidence is provided for each of these criteria. Students may earn up to two points for the crosscutting concept scale, proportion, and quantity if they, “recognize that objects can exist at the observable scale and also at a scale that is too small to be observed with the naked eye,” and “account for the observable separation or mixing of ingredients by describing interactions of particles that are too small to be observed with the naked eye.”

• Further, the Assessment Guide for the End-of-Unit Assessment rubrics include suggestions for Follow-Up. For example, in Grade 5, Unit: Ecosystem Restoration, End-Of-Unit Assessment Guide found in the Digital Resources for the lessons with End-of-Unit Assessments and Investigation Assessments there is detailed information that "shows specific suggestions for follow-up with students who need additional support based on the results of the assessment." There are follow up activities suggested for each rubric. Each rubric addresses the SEPs, DCIs, and CCCs that were assessed. The rubric provides follow-up questions for the teacher to ask the students, such as "If the argument doesn’t propose a claim that directly answers the question: Ask, “What are the possible reasons the snakes aren’t growing and thriving? Which reason do you think best explains why they aren’t growing and thriving?”" If the student is still struggling, the rubric provides a specific lesson and activity for them to review such as, "review with them the resources for writing scientific arguments in Lesson 1.8, Activity 3."

• The Embedded Formative Assessments, The Critical Juncture, and On-the-Fly Assessments, provide guidance on what to look for and how to tailor instruction if students do not demonstrate understanding. For example, Grade 5, Unit: Patterns of Earth and Sky, Unit Overview, Teacher References, Embedded Formative Assessments, Lesson 1.7, Activity 3 Tailor Instruction recommends, “If students do not demonstrate understanding that the stars are in all directions around Earth and the sun is the closest star, have them read pages 12, and 19–21 in How Big Is Big? How Far Is Far?” Another example is found in Grade 5, Unit: Modeling Matter, Lesson 1.10, Activity 2, Critical Juncture Assessment 1b, Hummingbird Icon which suggests teachers tailor instruction if students are not demonstrating understanding on this Critical Juncture Assessment. Teachers provide examples of explanations that use evidence effectively and direct students to return to the Modeling Matter Diagramming Tool to reconstruct a model of chromatography, talking through what their model shows and revising their explanation to ensure the models and explanations support each other. Also, in Grade 5, Unit: Modeling Matter, Lesson 1.3, Activity 3, On the Fly Assessment, Hummingbird Icon suggests teachers look for students to use evidence to put items in order for smallest to largest. Students who identify atoms, molecules, and a drop of water in the incorrect order are directed to revisit a caption for clarification. Teachers may also print out and cut apart images for students to use as manipulatives in clarifying their thinking.

• In each Unit, Unit Overview, Teacher References, the Embedded Formative Assessments detail the targeted learning objectives and how students will demonstrate the targeted standards under the heading Look Fors as well as the next steps teachers should take when students do not demonstrate understanding under the heading Now What? For example, in Unit: Patterns of Earth and Sky, Lesson 1.6, Activity 2, On-the-Fly Assessment 3: Explaining the Size and Brightness of the Sun, Now What? recommends, “If students do not understand that stars other than the sun appear small because they are so far from Earth, have them refer back to the distance table in How Big Is Big? How Far Is Far? Also ask them to compare the distances using their own data from the Sim. Help students understand the relative distances of the sun and other stars by drawing a simple diagram on the board to show how much further the stars are from Earth as compared to the distance between the sun and Earth.”

The materials for Grade 5 meet expectations for providing assessment opportunities for students to demonstrate the full intent of grade-level standards and elements across the series. The assessment system consistently incorporates the three dimensions. The assessment system also provides a variety of assessment types, but constructed response is the predominant modality. The Pre-Assessment, On-the-fly, Critical Juncture, and End-of-unit assessments require written responses. They assess the DCIs CCCs, and SEPs. There is a missed opportunity for students to demonstrate all of the SEPs, but there is a consistent focus on the practices of constructing explanations, argumentation, and modeling. Both versions (A and B) of the summative assessment ask students to provide written explanations. Version B provides students with sentence starters. Examples of assessments in this grade can be found in the reports for Indicators 1b and 1c.

In addition to summative assessments, Conversation rubrics found throughout the resources offer prompts, look fors, and/or suggestions for how to evaluate students but most focus on a singular dimension. There are rubrics that provide questions to develop understanding of students’ ability to demonstrate each dimension. The rubrics provide partial scores for partial student answers.

The materials reviewed for Grade 5 meet expectations for providing strategies and support for students in special populations to support their regular and active participation in learning grade-level/grade-band science and engineering. The strategies, supports, and resources to support students in regular and active participation and engagement include sentence starters or frames for discussions, revisiting the text, strategically pairing students, allowing adequate time, and utilizing graphic organizers. 

Examples include: 

• Grade 5, Unit: Modeling Matter, Lesson 1.3, Differentiation Brief recommends teachers strategically pair stronger readers with students who may need additional reading supports.

• Grade 5, Unit: Modeling Matter, Lesson 3.1, Differentiation Brief provides sentence starters. Students use sentence starters as a framework to share ideas during small and whole group discussions. Examples of sentence frames include, “When we ___, I observed ____.” as well as, “I think it might be because _____.”

• Grade 5, Access and Equity, Differentiation Strategies, Students with Disabilities section of the Program Guide states that detailed suggestions for students with disabilities can be found within each lesson and assessment task. Some examples are strategic grouping to create “positive and supportive student partnerships” that are important to developing a class culture where students feel comfortable in sharing ideas, and utilizing graphic organizers which are provided within lessons to guide student thinking. Another strategy suggested is that teachers provide students with adequate time to discuss and compose their ideas with partners or small groups before a writing task.

• Grade 5, Unit: Patterns of Earth and Sky, Lesson 1.3, Differentiation Brief suggests providing reading support by implementing Partner Reading time and checking in on the students by asking them to rephrase, in their own words, what they have read. Teachers can also meet with a small group while the rest of the class reads independently, or guiding the lesson in such a way that partners pause after reading a section and discussing the text or making inferences as a class. 

The materials miss the opportunity to draw a clear connection between specific strategies and supports for “students who need more support” and any below grade-level knowledge or skills.

The materials for Grade 5 meet expectations for providing extensions and/or opportunities for students to engage in learning grade-level/grade-band science and engineering at greater depth. Materials provide multiple opportunities for advanced students to engage in grade-level/grade-band science at a higher level of complexity. In multiple instances, the program differentiates for students who need more challenge. For example, in Grade 5, Unit: Modeling Matter, Lesson 2.2, in the Differentiation Section there is a strategy for students who need more challenge. The teacher is given a suggestion for having students make another model with a different substance for comparison, "In this lesson, all students are challenged to come up with a generic model of a solid dissolving in a liquid. Provide more challenge by having students make a model of citric acid dissolving in water versus sugar dissolving in water."

Additionally, in the digital platform, the Programs and Apps icon, Other Resources, Science Program Hub, Additional Unit Materials, any grade, any unit, Unit Extensions; teachers are provided a list of recommended extension activities such as field trips, integrating STEAM activities, incorporating forms of art, and conducting a research project in a group that can be offered to all students. Each document contains a statement similar to: “The experiences above can support the Disciplinary Ideas addressed in this unit, as well as practices such as Designing Solutions and crosscutting concepts such as Structure and Function.” These extension activities are activities that all students can benefit from. The extension activities are optional, but do present extra work for students who are asked to complete them. For Instance, in Grade 5, Unit: The Earth System, Lesson 2.6, Lesson Overview, Differentiation: Students who need more of a challenge are directed to create a presentation to build on their scientific explanations from their writing.