5th Grade - Gateway 2

The instructional materials reviewed for Benchmark Grade 5 meet the criteria that materials contain sets of coherently sequenced questions and tasks that require students to analyze the language, key ideas, details, craft, and structure of individual texts.

Short reads, extended reads, and independent readings assist students in developing a deeper understanding of key ideas. Language lessons provide opportunities for students to explore word choices and text structure. Sequences of questions and tasks support students’ skill development in analyzing components of texts, so students may navigate the content, draw conclusions and articulate their evidence-based opinions.

Opportunities are provided for students to analyze language, key ideas, details, craft, and structure of texts in order to determine main idea, describe text structures, and explain author’s reasoning. To support students in developing a deep conceptual understanding of texts in each unit, questions and tasks are scaffolded, becoming progressively more complex. Questions accompanying the texts require students to use inferential knowledge to deepen their understanding of the texts. Questions and tasks push students’ thinking around the text structure, language and author’s craft.

• In Unit 3, Week 1, Lesson 5 students identify and analyze an author’s objective point of view. After rereading paragraph 3 in “The Structure of a Corn Plant,” students pause to model thinking about the details in the paragraph and how they illustrate an objective point of view. Examples of objective adjectives and verbs are recorded on a class chart. Students reread paragraphs 1 and 2 and circle examples of verbs and adjectives that support objective point of view. Students reflect on objective language and its uses in the texts they read across content areas in school. Partners address these questions: “What texts in your classroom have an objective point of view? Why do these texts use objective language?” Students are reminded that an objective point of view presents facts without stating opinions.
• In Unit 8, Week 3, Lesson 11, students explain the relationship between events in a scientific text. Students reread a text to find text evidence and draw an inference from the evidence, incorporating key vocabulary as they demonstrate understanding of the topic at hand.
• In Unit 9, Week 3, Lesson 3, students read paragraphs 1-11 in Old Cities Revitalize and underline key details and main ideas and practice discerning relevant information from less relevant. Partners pose questions to each other that will clarify the reasons for underlining a detail in service of understanding and core of the text.
• In Unit 10, students answer close reading questions requiring them to analyze the structure of the text, author’s intent and language, and use vocabulary from the text itself to explain their analyses. These questions are located in the Text Evidence Questions resource. From “John Dalton: Father of the Atomic Theory," students answer: “What evidence from the text supports this statement?” From “Matter Is Everywhere!” students answer: “How does this illustration help you understand particle movement for each type of matter?” From “Investigate: Changes in Matter” students view the diagram on page 13 and answer: “How is chewing a piece of food an example of a physical change? How is saliva breaking down the food an example of a chemical change?” From, “Marie M. Daly: Biochemistry Pioneer” and “John Dalton: Father of the Atomic Theory” students answer: “How did Dalton’s and Daly’s work advance people’s understanding of matter?”

The instructional materials reviewed for Benchmark Grade 5 meet the criteria that materials include a cohesive, year-long plan for students to interact with and build key academic vocabulary words in and across texts.

The instructional materials include a cohesive, year-long plan for students to interact and build key academic vocabulary words in and across texts. A scope and sequence is provided allowing for identification of the academic and domain-specific vocabulary for each week within the unit of study. Vocabulary instruction is highlighted throughout each unit and is addressed both explicitly and embedded in context. Teachers are provided guidance and suggestions outlining differentiated support in order to meet the needs of various learners that is cohesive and spans across the year.

Opportunities are provided for students to use and respond to the words they learn through playful informal talk, discussion, reading or being read to, and responding to what is read. Word study and vocabulary mini-lessons are a part of the instruction each week with a text to accompany the lessons. Vocabulary builds throughout the week and across texts within a one-week period. Specific texts are used which focus strictly on domain specific vocabulary. Academic vocabulary is also a part of the unit assessment as well as the weekly assessment.

Vocabulary lessons highlight the most relevant vocabulary words aimed at building knowledge of the unit topic and support comprehension. To support students’ understanding of complex texts, the following vocabulary words and mini-lessons are targeted. Opportunities to interact and build vocabulary include:

• In Unit 2, Week 1, vocabulary words come from shared, mentor, and extended texts. Giddy, rollicking, mar, throng, laden are in “Becky Returns.” The Build Vocabulary instructional focus is using context clues to define uncommon or archaic words. For Making Meaning with Words, students learn mischievous and rollicking from “Becky Returns,” and students learn cautiously from “Games in the Woods.”
• Unit 3, Week 1, Lesson 1, to support instruction, teachers are provided differentiated support options to assist students in determining the meanings of domain-specific words In the section, Integrate ELD, there is a detailed plan for light, moderate or substantial support. The teacher shows the video and asks students to draw or write questions or ideas they have about the video. Students discuss new ideas related to the Essential Question and add those to the class list. The teacher writes the domain-specific vocabulary words cultivate, develop, landscape, and resource on the board and then replays the video and ask students to use audio and video clues to determine the meaning of these words. In Week 2, Lesson 6, the teacher rereads paragraph 5, circling the word symbiosis and modeling how to determine the meaning of symbiosis, using clues in nearby text.
• In Unit 6, Week 1, vocabulary words come from shared, mentor, and extended texts. Public spectacle, ravenous, bounding, fawned and pardoned from “Androcles and the Lion.” The Building Vocabulary instructional focus is Determine the Meaning of Words and Phrases as They Are Used in a Text. For Making Meaning with Words, vocabulary words from the shared mentor and extended texts are chaos, evacuate and priorities in “Brushfire!” The instructional focus is building word knowledge by using vocabulary routines to introduce the words and having students complete the “Making Meaning with Words” glossary on the inside back cover of their Texts for Close Reading.
• In Unit 7, Week 1, Lesson 5, objectives for students include acquire and use domain-specific words related to the Revolutionary War and use reference materials such as print and digital dictionaries, to discover the meaning of domain-specific words. Students use context clues to determine the meaning of enlisted, siege, and detachment.
• In Unit 10, Week 2, vocabulary words are from shared, mentor, and extended texts. Properties and particles are from “John Dalton: Father of the Atomic Theory”, states, properties, particles, property, texture and state are from “Matter Is Everywhere”, property, particles, properties, texture, solution, reactants and state are from “Investigate: Changes in Matter”, and solution is from “ My Dad the Street Chief.” The instructional focus is Determine the Meaning of Domain Specific Words. In Making Meaning with Words, vocabulary words are from the shared mentor and extended texts. Condensed and dissolves are in “Investigate: Changes in Matter.” The instructional focus is building word knowledge by using vocabulary routines to introduce the words, and having students complete the “Making Meaning with Words” glossary on the inside back cover of their Texts for Close Reading.

The instructional materials reviewed for Benchmark Grade 5 meet the criteria that materials support students’ increasing writing skills over the course of the school year, building students’ writing ability to demonstrate proficiency at grade level at the end of the school year.

The instructional materials include embedded writing across the year using a variety of well-designed guidance, protocols, models, and support for teachers to implement and monitor students writing development. The writing instruction supports students’ growth in writing skills over the course of the school year, building students’ writing ability to demonstrate proficiency at grade level at the end of the year. Students write to address multiple topics over both short and extended time frames and are provided with mentor texts, writing prompts, and rubrics to help them self-evaluate writing, as well as give teachers a clear picture to evaluate and give feedback. The required time the weekly lesson would take, along with the amount of writing students are responsible for, is balanced and takes place during each three week unit. Students are provided time to adequately refine and reflect on their writing before moving on to a new topic. Discussion regarding writing also takes place with peers and with the teacher.

Students participate in both on-demand and process writings throughout the year. Students are required to respond to evidence-based writing prompts in the Build, Reflect, Write notebook. Prior to responding to the text, students have pre-work to support their response. Students read and reread texts, use annotation, cite text evidence to support their ideas and opinions, and write short analytical responses. Students are provided objectives directly related to the writing process during the lessons.Writing requires students to synthesize information gathered while engaging with text sets and use the writing to demonstrate comprehension of complex texts. Writing is used as a vehicle for research and building knowledge, and range of writing activities and increase in rigor from the beginning to the end of the school year. To provide comprehensive support, teacher resources support students’ writing development by providing well-designed lesson plans, models and/or exemplars, and protocols to support student writing. Materials attend to not just end results of writing work, but also provide guidance for practicing, revising, and creating.

• The Benchmark Program Reference Guide includes a component that outlines writing alignment: Writing Aligned to Common Core Expectations. This resource shows the writing progression and distribution of writing types and skills for grades K-6.
• In Unit 1, Week 1, Lessons 3, 6, 9, and 12, students write a personal letter with the teacher scaffolding the following strategies: read a mentor text, analyze features of the mentor text, find facts and details from “Creating the Constitution” that is included in the mentor personal letter, plan the letter using a planning guide to gather and organize information, and draft the personal letter using the Personal Letter Writing Rubric.
• In Unit 5, students use an Opinion Essay Writing checklist at each step in their writing to help them construct a well-organized opinion essay. In Lesson 6, students find facts and details that support their opinion. In this process writing mini-lesson, the teacher shows students how to evaluate online sources of information to distinguish between those that are knowledgeable and credible and those that are not. In Lesson 9, students take notes from online sources. In Lesson 11, students plan and organize the information to draft a strong opinion essay.
  • In Week 2, students write a draft starting with introduction, incorporating research to support opinion, using words and phrases to link opinion and reasons, and drafting a concluding statement.
  • In Week 3, students revise by varying sentence beginnings to improve fluency, revise to strengthen opinion using modal auxiliaries, edit for correct comma usage and correct spelling using reference materials, creating a title, and using technology to publish the writing.
• In Unit 6, students write to sources using narrative journal entries. Throughout Week 1, students analyze the genre and complete the following mini-lessons: read a mentor text, analyze character and events, read a text source to find character traits, develop the character’s voice, and conventions of language: understand the function of prepositions.
  • In Week 2, students work to organize their ideas for writing and are provided practice through the following mini-lessons: read and analyze the prompt, reread a source text to find character information, read to find story events, plan your journal entries, and to use future perfect tense.
  • In Week 3, students work to draft, revise and edit and are provided practice through the following mini-lessons. Use description in your draft, draft an ending to provide a sense of closure, revise to add details using prepositional phrases, and to edit for correct form and use of verb tense. In Lesson 10, students are provided with a model text to illustrate the draft and revisions made using the mini-lesson on adding details through the use of prepositional phrases. In Lesson 15, students are provided with a narrative journal writing rubric in order to evaluate their draft text for self-reflection and determination if the student feels it is ready to turn in for evaluation.

• In Unit 8, Week 1, teachers introduce the Informative Report and guide students through the prewriting steps in the writing process: brainstorm, evaluate ideas, and plan. In Week 2, teachers guide students through the drafting steps in the writing process and provide instruction in Conventions of Language and sentences with multiple tenses. In Week 3, teachers guide students through the revising, editing, and publishing steps in the writing process.

The instructional materials reviewed for Benchmark Grade 5 meet the criteria that materials include a progression of focused research projects to encourage students to develop knowledge in a given area by confronting and analyzing different aspects of a topic using multiple texts and source materials.

The instructional materials provide a Program Reference Guide component that outlines writing alignment. This resource shows the writing progression and distribution of writing types and skills for grades K-6. In Units 8, 9 and 10, students conduct research independently or with a peer. In each unit, students conduct research to write in a different mode. Daily research and writing process mini-lessons support students’ independent work. In addition to a progression of writing tasks that increase in complexity across the grade levels, tasks also increase over time vertically through the grade levels. In Grade 5, students participate in independent/peer research projects. Research opportunities are sequenced throughout the year to include a progression of research skills that build to student independence. Opportunities are provided for students to integrate their language skills across units and topics. Students are provided with robust instruction, practice, and application of research skills throughout their grade level reading, writing, speaking, listening, and language skills. These skills are supported and put into practice as they build knowledge about a topic or topics. Support for students to develop and apply research skills are explicitly provided throughout each unit. The mini-lessons and topic-driven text sets support teachers in employing projects that develop students’ knowledge of different aspects of a topic.

• In Unit 2, Connect Across Disciplines Inquiry Projects, there are three choices of inquiry/research projects connected to the Essential Question of Why do we value certain qualities in people?
  • Write Help Wanted Ads for Explorers: Students analyze characteristics of explorers, research specific skills and traits of explorers to the Americas, create Help Wanted ads designed to attract explorers, and identify successful ads.
  • Give Opinion Speeches: Students research people from the colonial era, choose a colonial person to meet and identify personal opinions, write and present a speech including description and opinion, and analyze evidence presented in speeches.
  • Profile the Mississippi River: Students research information and visuals to profile the Mississippi River, select relevant statistics, data, and visuals for a profile of the Mississippi River, and create a presentation using information and visuals.

• In Unit 3, Weeks 1-3, Writing to Sources, students write an informative report based on facts and details found in a media source and in a Mentor Informative Report.
  • In Week 1, students listen and view a media source, “Harvesting Corn” and take notes about information in the video.
  • In Week 2, students read and analyze the prompt: “For this prompt, I need to explain how corn is produced in our country.
  • In Week 3, students incorporate information from the sources during the drafting of the informative report.
• In Unit 5, Connect Across Disciplines Inquiry Projects, students can show their knowledge of the Essential Question of: What value does technology bring to people’s lives? There are three choices of inquiry/research projects:
  
  • Design a Technological Solution: Students make connections between technology and change, research technological innovations from the Age of Exploration, choose one innovation to show the power of change, evaluate presentations for strength of evidence and conclusions, and share thinking with peers.
  • Nominate Technologies from the Age of Exploration: Students define and identify examples of technology, research colonial technology write a letter describing one colonial technology and its importance in the colonial economy, evaluate presentations by my peers, and share thinking with peers.
  • Describe Colonial Technology: Students identify and describe problems, work with peers to design multiple solutions to a problem, present design solutions to the class, and share thinking with peers.
• In Unit 8, Weeks 1-3, students complete the process writing task of creating an Informative Report.
  • In Week 1, students organize their ideas, develop a focus, select knowledgeable and credible print resources, take notes from print sources, and use cause/effect text structure to organize the report.
  • In Week 2, mini-lessons focus on the introduction and development of the topic, how to use linking words and phrases to connect ideas, to provide a concluding statement, and to use writing conventions.
  • In Week 3, students work to revise, edit,and publish their writing, focusing on expanding sentences, revising with domain-specific vocabulary, using correct verb tense, using reference materials to check spelling, and publishing the writing using technology.
  • In Week 3, Lesson 14, students integrate information from the two texts to answer the close reading question. Students write sentences from the two texts that show cause-and-effect relationships.

• In Unit 9, Connect Across the Disciplines, there are three choices of inquiry/research projects pertaining to the Essential Question of: “How do Economic Changes Impact Societies?”
  • Analyze Environmental Change in Butterflies: Students research the status of Monarch butterflies and identify cause-and-effect relationships, analyze and present data showing environmental changes affecting Monarch butterflies, share thinking with peers.
  • Profile an American City Over Time: Students research and report on changes that have occurred over time in specific American cities, create presentations to show these changes, and share thinking with peers.
  • Track Sky Changes: Students form hypotheses and draw conclusions about the movement of Earth relative to the sun, create a sundial, make predictions and observations, share thinking with peers.

The materials reviewed for Benchmark Grade 5 meet the criteria that materials provide a design, including accountability, for how students will regularly engage in a volume of independent reading either in or outside of class.

The Benchmark materials provide the opportunity for students to read independently throughout the school year. The materials include a resource in Program Support titled, “Managing Your Independent Reading Program,” which details the expectations for teachers and students to be reading both in class and independently at home. The “Managing Your Independent Reading Program” includes: resources for organizing independent reading, the classroom library, room arrangement, anchor charts, mini-lessons for promoting independent reading, reading response journals and logs, discussion groups and book recommendations, guidance for conferring with students, and information on growing your classroom library. According to the materials, “Students should also be encouraged to develop a routine of reading daily at home for a minimum of 20 minutes, either independently or with a parent.” In the independent reading stage, students are required to self-select and to read materials at their own ‘just-right’ levels.” For Fluent Readers, the Five-Finger Method is recommended for book selection:

1. Choose a book that you would like to read.
2. Turn to any page and begin reading.
3. If there are five words you can’t pronounce or that you don’t understand, the book is too difficult for you.
4. Repeat the process until you find a “just-right” book.

A tracking system is recommended in the “Managing Your Independent Reading Program” to track students’ independent reading in the form of a reading log and reading response journal. Reading response journals are kept by students and used to record personal responses to texts they have read or will read. Teachers demonstrate proper techniques, provide mini-lessons on how to respond to literature and model several prompts by listing them on chart paper, and hang the paper on the wall. The reading log is also suggested as an independent reading tracking tool. In reading logs, students keep a record of what they have read by writing the book title, author, illustrator, genre, and date read.

There is sufficient teacher guidance to foster independence for all readers and procedures are organized for independent reading included in the lessons, for example, as stated in the text, “Within Benchmark Advance, students may participate in daily independent reading during the Independent and Collaborative Activity block, while the teacher meets with small groups of students to conduct differentiated small-group reading instruction, model fluency skills through reader’s theater, or reteach skills and strategies.” Students complete a variety of reading activities in the reading block. Students have shared reading and mentor read-alouds each week. There are also a set of small group texts that will be used in small group time. Each set of texts is leveled according to Guided Reading levels. Student independent reading materials span a wide volume of texts at grade levels. These texts titles are included as a teacher resource, Recommended Trade Books.