1st Grade - Gateway 3

The materials reviewed for Amplify Science Grade 1 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 2 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 Grade 1 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 1, Unit: Animal and Plant Defenses, Planning for the Unit, Science Background, Connections to Future Learning, there are detailed paragraphs on how this content connects to learning to come in 3rd grade as well as middle school. It provides adult level explanations about climate such as "In middle school, students build toward a more complex understanding of evolution, including exploring concepts such as inheritance of genes. Traits are determined by an organism’s genes. A gene is an instruction for a type of protein molecule produced in the organism’s cells. "

The materials reviewed for Amplify Grade 1 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 1, Light and Sound, in the Standards and Goals section of the teacher's guide the publisher has added information explaining how students will engage in the ELA and Math standards. For ELA it states, “CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.1.5: Know and use various text features (e.g., headings, tables of contents, glossaries, electronic menus, icons) to locate key facts or information in a text. Students have the opportunity to use text features to locate key facts or information as they read the reference book, Engineering with Light and Sound. For example, in Lesson 3.3, students use the table of contents and headings to search for solutions that let different amounts of light pass through different materials. In Lesson 4.1, students revisit the table of contents and use headings as they explore the book to identify sound sources and solutions that include sound sources.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.1.7: Use the illustrations and details in a text to describe its key ideas. Students have the opportunity to use illustrations and details in a text to describe key ideas about light and sound. For example, in Lesson 1.4, students browse the illustrations and text in the book, Can You See in the Dark?, to identify additional light sources that they may not have encountered during the Light-Source Hunt in Lesson 1.3. In Lesson 2.2, students use the illustrations and the consistent sentence pattern in the book, What Made This Shadow?, to notice that shadows are made by an object blocking light.” Also, for math it states, “CCSS.MATH.PRACTICE.MP1: Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them. Throughout this unit, students have multiple opportunities to make sense of problems and persevere in solving them as they apply prior knowledge and experiences and engage in investigations to determine how to use shadows to create a puppet-show scene that has bright and dark areas.” and “CCSS.MATH.PRACTICE.MP2: Reason abstractly and quantitatively. Students have the opportunity to reason abstractly as they determine patterns in how a light source and various materials can be used to make light and dark areas on a surface. For example, in Lesson 1.5, students explore light sources and use reasoning to identify patterns to determine how to adjust a light source to make a surface look bright or dark. In Lesson 2.2, students use abstract reasoning to categorize different objects into categories of light source, blocking object, or shadow based on their experiences with real-life light investigations.“

The materials for Grade 1 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 K-2 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 CCCs and the DCIs associated with the specific unit of instruction. These strategies are further explained in each Lesson with more explicit detail.

Examples at the Grade 1 level include:

• In Grade 1, Unit: Light and Sound, Teacher Guide, Lesson Guides, Lesson 1.2, Activity 1, the routine for introducing vocabulary is introduced to students and detailed for the teacher in the lesson. The teacher shows the vocabulary word card, defines the word for students, says the word as a class, has students whisper the word to a partner, say the definition again for students, then posts the card on the wall.

• In Grade 1, Unit: Light and Sound, Teacher Guide, Lesson Guides, Lesson 1.3, Activity 4, the routine for shared listening is introduced to students and detailed in the lesson for the teacher. The teacher models what shared listening looks like with a partner including how to listen and how to ask questions. Throughout the Grade 1 units, the Shared Listening routine has the following progression: The focus of this unit is listening for the purpose of agreeing or disagreeing.

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 1 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 which lessons the item(s) will be used for. 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 1 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:

• In Grade 1, Unit: Animal and Plant Defenses, Lesson Guide, Lesson 2.8, Activity 3, the safety note states, “Caution students about how to safely use the toothpicks."

The assessment materials for Grade 1 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 1 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 1 Unit, under Printable Resources, there is a document titled 3-D Assessment Objectives  This document contains the 3-D Statement and accompanying objectives, their pertinence with 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 section lists 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 1 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, in Grade 1, Unit Light and Sound, Lesson 4.6, Digital Resources, Assessment Guide: Assessing Students’ Understanding of Science Concepts in the Unit provides rubrics that give teachers questions to use to guide their grading of student assessments. The guidance does not tell teachers how to assign a grade, but tells them to use their discretion. “If you would like to score students’ explanations for grading purposes, we recommend using a 5-point scale (0-4). An explanation that provides an accurate and sufficient response to each question listed in the rubric should score a 4. An explanation that does not provide an accurate response to any questions should score a 0. For explanations that provide accurate responses to some, but not all questions, assign scores from 1 to 3 at your discretion. For guidance on what could be considered an accurate explanation for each question, see the Possible Accurate Student Responses table at the end of this document.”

• Further, the Assessment Guide for the End-of-Unit Assessment rubrics include suggestions for Follow-Up. For example, in Grade 1, Unit Light and Sound, Lesson 4.6, Digital Resources, Assessment Guide: Assessing Students’ Understanding of Science Concepts in the Unit provides rubrics that give teachers questions to use to guide their grading of student assessments. The guidance does not tell teachers how to assign a grade, but tells them to use their discretion. “If you would like to score students’ explanations for grading purposes, we recommend using a 5-point scale (0-4). An explanation that provides an accurate and sufficient response to each question listed in the rubric should score a 4. An explanation that does not provide an accurate response to any questions should score a 0. For explanations that provide accurate responses to some, but not all questions, assign scores from 1 to 3 at your discretion. For guidance on what could be considered an accurate explanation for each question, see the Possible Accurate Student Responses table at the end of this document.”

• The Embedded Formative Assessments, The Critical Juncture and On-the-Fly Assessments, provide guidance on what to look for among students who do not demonstrate understanding. For instance, in Grade 1, Unit: Animal and Plant Defenses, Teacher Guide, Teacher References, Embedded Formative Assessments, Lesson 1.5, Activity 1, Critical Juncture Assessment 1: Understanding of Avoiding Predation to Survive, Assess Understanding: “Students’ Shared Listening exchanges about how sea turtles use their structures to do what they need to survive is an opportunity for you to assess their understanding that animals need to avoid being eaten by predators in order to survive.”

The materials for Grade 1 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 consistently assess a DCI, CCC, and SEP. 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. Overall, the assessments in Grade 1 rely heavily on oral communication skills. 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. For example, in Grade 1, Spinning Earth, Rubric 1 focuses on the DCI, Rubric 2 focuses on the CCC and Rubric 3’s list of questions focuses on the SEP for the unit. This is similar in Kindergarten but not in Grade 2 where the rubrics become more classical in that they contain partial scores for partial answers.

The materials for Grade 1 meet expectations for providing strategies and supports for students in special populations to support their regular and active participation in learning grade-level/grade-band science and engineering. In Grade 1, several strategies are provided for students to support their regular and active participation in learning. Some examples include specific differentiation strategies embedded supports for diverse learners, and role assignments to support group work. Specific evidence of each is listed below:

• Grade 1, Unit: Light and Sound, Lesson 1.2, Digital materials, Differentiation tab, “To maximize these resources, preview the book Can You See in the Dark? with students before the Read-Aloud. To assure that students are able to make meaning from the book, have them engage with the pictures and discuss what they notice. You may want to invite them to use their primary languages with a partner who speaks the same primary language. During this time, you can introduce key vocabulary such as bright, dark, evidence, observe, source, and surface to preview the content that will be in the book. You can also point out the cognates in Spanish for some of these words like evidence/evidencia, observe/observer, and surface/superficie. This preview will cue English learners to pay attention to certain information during the Read-Aloud and will increase their chances of gaining new content knowledge.”

• Grade 1, Unit: Spinning Earth, Lesson 2.2, Digital materials, Differentiation tab, “Kinesthetic activities. The hands-on nature of the Mount Nose Role-Play and use of the globes to recognize a pattern and make predictions allow students to see and feel the distribution pattern of daytime and nighttime on the globe. By experiencing it in their bodies—by facing the sun and not facing the sun—students are able to assimilate the information about something they cannot witness on an observable scale. Visual representations. The use of globes and the Sun Card and Stars Card to investigate why the sky in different locations on Earth looks different at the same time provides a visual support to help students see and understand the cause of that phenomenon. This visual support is especially helpful for English learners and students who benefit from additional support with processing oral or written language.”

• Grade 1, Unit: Spinning Earth, Lesson 3.2, Digital materials, Differentiation tab, “Students will be working in small groups to create Sky Mural horizon sections in Activity 3. Being part of a group can present a challenge for many students. Interacting with peers and working well together can add a whole new dimension to the lesson, especially when students are required to share materials. Modeling expected behaviors and setting clear expectations supports students’ efforts to be part of a group. Consider assigning roles to students if you think your students could benefit from additional structure in this activity”

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.