4th Grade - Gateway 2

The instructional materials reviewed for Benchmark Grade 4 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 2, Week 1, Lesson 4, students analyze characters based on the their actions and dialogue from “The Gnat and the Lion” and “The Gnat and the Bull.” The teacher models how to use dialogue and actions to understand a character. Students help analyze characters based on their words, actions, and descriptions within the specific texts.
• In Unit 5, Week 1, Lesson 2, students read the text “The Hopeville Ledger: Town Tackles Energy Debate,” underlining key details and starring the main idea in each paragraph. Students use their text annotations to write a short summary of the text with the main idea and key details, synthesizing evidence from the text into focused demonstration of what they read.
• In Unit 7, Week 3 students identify key details and determine main idea from the text “The Oregon Trail.” Students read paragraphs 15-16 underlining key details as they read. Students annotate and assess their ability to differentiate between important and unimportant information. Partners work to identify key details from this section to determine main idea. Students share key details and main idea of the section while other students listen carefully to determine whether the key details support the main idea.
• In Unit 9, Week 2, Lesson 3, students preview the selection “Natural Resources and Workers.” Students annotate paragraphs 1 and 2 and work with a partner to discuss the key details they underlined and determine the main idea. Students use a graphic organizer to record paragraphs they read, key details found and the main idea(s) from the text. During independent time, students read paragraphs 3-11 annotating key details and determining main ideas for the paragraphs.

The instructional materials reviewed for Benchmark Grade 4 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.

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, Build Vocabulary, the vocabulary words are disturbed, defeated, proud, and miserable from “The Gnat and the Lion” and proud from “Snow White Meets the Huntsman.” The instructional focus is Understand and Use Words That Signal States of Being. For Making Meaning with Words, the vocabulary words are miserable (“The Lion and the Gnat”), pardon (“The Gnat and the Bull”), arrogant, envy, and pity (“Snow White Meets the Huntsman”). The instructional focus is Understand Figurative Language- Similes.
• In Unit 6, Week 3, the lesson type is Build Vocabulary and the vocabulary words from shared, mentor, and extended texts are Hercules, Titans, Olympus, Herculean, titanic and Olympian from “Hercules’ Quest.” The instructional focus is Determine the Meaning of Words and Phrases in a Text (Mythological Allusions). To support instruction, teachers are provided an if/then strategy to address potential barriers students may encounter in this lesson.
• In Unit 7, Week 1, Lesson 1, the teacher shows the unit video and asks students what new ideas the video brings to mind related to the Essential Question. New ideas are added to a class list and the academic vocabulary words livelihood, migrations, and development are written on the board. The teacher replays the video and ask students to use audio and video clues to determine the meaning of these words. In Week 2, Lesson 9, the teacher builds vocabulary by introducing prefixes trans-, pro-, sub-, super- and inter- explaining that there are other prefixes that can answer the question “Where?”
• In Unit 9, Week 2, the vocabulary instruction for Build Vocabulary includes agriculture, mission, and quota from “Natural Resources and Workers” and agriculture and mission from “John Henry.” The instructional focus is Determine Meaning of Domain-Specific Vocabulary. In Making Meaning with Words, students learn the meaning of disrupted, functioned, harvest, and contributors from “Natural Resources and Workers.”

The instructional materials reviewed for Benchmark Grade 4 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 materials to 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 2, Week 2, students read “Come Away, Come Away!” and respond to the following prompt in their Build, Reflect, Write journals: “What story details support this view of Peter’s character? Write an informative essay in which you answer this question, using details and evidence from “‘Come Away, Come Away!’” To prepare for this prompt, students record on a chart what they have learned about the characters Peter and Wendy and reflect on what the dialogue tells them about the characters and about the characters' relationships.
• In Unit 3, students write to sources creating an informative report. Based on the texts “A Bird’s Free Lunch” and “The World of Woodpeckers,” students describe the appearance and behavior of woodpeckers by supporting their ideas with facts and details from the text and video. In Lesson 6, students reread a source text closely to find the facts and details needed to draft the mentor text using an Appearance and Behavior Chart to help. In Lesson 9, students view a video about woodpeckers taking notes and using a chart to organize the information. In Lesson 12, students begin to organize their information into an informative report using a paragraph and content planning chart.
  • In Week 2, Lesson 4, the new mentor writing prompt is based on information from “Being in and Seeing Nature” and “The World of Chipmunks.” Students write an informative report describing the appearance and behavior of chipmunks using facts and details from the texts and video. Students use Student Writing Prompt and Informative Report Writing checklists. In Lesson 7 students reread paragraph 6 of Being in and Seeing Nature and the teacher models how to find facts and details about chipmunks in the source text. In Lesson 10, students view and take notes from a video source to find facts and organize the information on a chart. In Lesson 13, students plan and organize their informative report using an Informative Report Planning Guide and other tools from previous lessons. The teacher uses the following prompts to monitor and support students: “Directive Feedback, Put your facts into categories. The categories can be the sections of your report. Self-Monitoring and Reflection, Take a look at your facts and details. Do you feel you are ready to draft? Why or why not? Validating and Confirming, You generated very interesting facts for each category!”
  • In Week 3, students begin writing the report. In Lesson 4, students introduce the topic clearly and hook the reader. In Lesson 7, students incorporate information from the sources they used and provide a section for concluding statements. In Lesson 10, students look back at their descriptions and revise them to make them stronger. Students add adjectives to their writing and order these adjectives correctly. In Lesson 13, students edit their work. In Lesson 15, students evaluate their edited reports using a writing rubric to make sure it is ready to turn in. The teacher monitors and asks students the following questions: “How do you feel this assignment helped your writing develop? What was the most challenging part of writing the informative report? What strategies did you use to overcome the challenges?”
• In Unit 7, students read “The Open Road” and respond to the following prompt: “Write a short news report describing the history of Route 66, and how dust bowl refugees used it to move west. Include facts, details, and quotations from ‘The Open Road’ and ‘Dust Bowl Refugees.’” In Week 1, students are supported in Lessons 3, 6 ,9 and 12 by gradually building a coherent product. In the Build, Reflect, and Write notebook, students respond to the following writing prompt: “Using facts and details you learned from ‘The Open Road,’ ‘Dust Bowl Refugees’ and ‘Black Sunday,’ write a letter from the point of view of a dust bowl refugee traveling west in the 1930s.” To support students in completing this task, students identify cause-and-effect relationships discussed in the selections and record findings on a chart.
• In Unit 10, students write a cinquain, a newly introduced writing genre. To support students in completing this task they engage in the following progression:
  • Week 1, students organize ideas after being introduced to the genre, understanding the cinquain form, brainstorming ideas for a cinquain, evaluating ideas and narrowing to the focus and developing ideas through freewriting.
  • Week 2, students draft a cinquain, revise to use strong vivid verbs and alliteration to strengthen and revise the poem, use a checklist to edit and use keyboarding skills to publish.
  • In Week 3, students reflect on narrative, informational/explanatory and opinion writing, prepare to share their writing and then share their writing.
  • Comprehensive teacher support provides a model cinquain in Week 1, Lesson 3. Additionally, teachers and students are provided with a Cinquain checklist in Week 2, Lesson 13. In Week 2, Lesson 10, during conferring and monitoring, teachers are provided guidance to validate student efforts and support students who get stuck by prompting them with corrective feedback questions. Guidance in writing the Cinquain is provided throughout the unit, including an anchor chart, a cinquain features chart and a several model cinquains. This tools are used to guide students in successfully completing the task.

The instructional materials reviewed for Benchmark Grade 4 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 4, 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, students can participate in a research project called “Make an Observation Journal.” Students research animal behaviors using internet sources including videos. Students participate in a class discussion on what can be observed about animal behavior, and students observe an animal to collect observational data on the animal behavior. In groups, students present their reports to the class.
• In Unit 4, students research and write an opinion piece.
  • In Week 1, students read a mentor text to find facts and details and then use that text evidence to form an opinion.
  • In Week 2, students read and analyze the following prompt: “In your readings, you have encountered two different narrative points of view, first person and third person. Which style do you think is a more effective way of telling a story? State your opinion in an essay, and provide reasons that are supported by details from two of the following readings; Here, Boy, Waiting for Stormy, A Dog’s Life, and Quiet!” Using research, students develop reasons based on facts and details from the text and use the evidence to support their opinion for the essay.
  • In Week 3, students begin the writing process and incorporate their research evidence in their opinion writing.
• In Unit 7, students work on writing a news report. This requires students to read mentor news reports, analyze how writers incorporate information from multiple sources, gather facts and details from sources, and use notes to organize the report.
  • In Week 1, students learn how to organize news reports in the Five Ws by analyzing the Mentor text.
  • In Week 2, students reread “The Open Road” and “Building the Transcontinental Railroad” in order to take notes for the news report prompt.
  • In Week 3, students revise the news report for sentence length, structure, and formal language.
• In Unit 8, students read several informative texts about climate and weather. Throughout the unit, students plan, draft, and revise an informative report on a science topic of their own choosing. Students are reminded throughout the unit that an informative report provides facts and details about a topic.
  • In Week 1, the focus is Organize Ideas and the mini-lesson tasks are: brainstorm a topic, evaluate online sources, gather information and take notes from online sources, organize the informative report and form and use the future tense.
  • In Week 2, the focus is Draft and the mini-lessons are: introduce the topic, develop the topic with specific details, use linking words and phrases to connect ideas, provide a concluding statement and produce simple, complex and compound sentences.
  • In Week 3, the focus is Revise, Edit and Publish and the mini-lessons are; revise to improve sentence fluency, revise to include domain specific vocabulary, edit for correct use of verb tenses, edit to correct coordinating and subordinating conjunctions and include illustrations to aid comprehension.
• In Unit 10, Connect Across Disciplines Inquiry Projects, students can participate in a research project about electrical currents called “Record Radio Interviews.” Students research the electrical inventions of Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Edison, and Nikola Tesla. After researching the inventions, students write imaginary radio interviews and perform the interviews to the class.

The materials reviewed for Benchmark Grade 4 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.

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 Benchmark 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.