4th Grade - Gateway 1

The materials reviewed for Grade 4 meet the criteria for Indicator 1b. 

Each of the 10 units contain a variety of text types and genres including legends, folktales, drama, fantasy, fairy tales, personal narrative and essays, realistic fiction, science fiction, opinion/editorials, various poetry, and informational texts based on social studies and life science concepts. Across the core texts for all units, there is a 54/46 balance of literary and informational texts. This does not include the read aloud poem at the end of each unit because the lesson and tasks associated are not directly connected to the unit purpose or skills.  The majority of units focus completely on either literary or informational.  Units 1, 3, and 9 provide mixed text types for students to cross-reference. 

Materials reflect the distribution of text types/genres required by the grade- level standards. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:

• In Unit 1, Week 2, the extended read text is a personal essay ”Starting Off” an excerpt from Mississippi Solo by Eddy L. Harris. 

• In Unit 2, Week 1, during small group instruction, students read the historical fiction text Finding Jacob by Francis E. Ruffin.

• In Unit 3, Week 1, students read a science fiction text, “The First Town Meeting” an excerpt from The People of Sparks by Jeanne Du Prau. 

• In Unit 4, Week 1, during small group instruction, students read the graphic story The Girl Who Met the Greatest Lawman by Joel Christian Gill.

• In Unit 5, Week 3, the Reader’s Theater text options are both literary texts: a realistic fiction text Oh, Those Sentence-Changing Mixer-Uppers by Amanda Jenkins and a play One Giant Leap by Katherine Follett

• In Unit 6, Week 3, during whole group instruction, students read the folktale Estrella and the Emerald Ring by Alma Flor Ada.

• In Unit 7, Week 2, the extended read text is an informational text, The Chinese Railroad Workers by Hao Zou. 

• In Unit 8, Week 2, during whole group instruction, students read the informational social studies text Volcanoes by Brett Kelly.

• In Unit 9, Week 1, the short read text is a pair of narrative poems: “César: ¡Sí, Se Puede! Yes, We Can" by Alexandra Hanson-Harding and "Who Could Tell" by Carmen T. Bernier-Grand. 

• In Unit 10, Week 1, during small group instruction, students read the informational opinion/argument text Opinions About Maglev Trains by Kathy Furgang.

Materials reflect an approximate 50/50 balance of informational and literary texts. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following: 

• Overall the materials include 22 informational core texts and 19 literary core texts for a 54/46 balance.

• Unit 1 contains 4 core texts with 50% being literary and 50% being informational.

• Unit 2 contains 4 core texts with 100% being literary.

• Unit 3 contains 4 core texts with 50% being literary and 50% being informational.

• Unit 4  contains 4 core texts with 100% being literary.

• Unit 5 contains 4 core texts with 100% being informational.

• Unit 6 contains 4 core texts with 100% being literary.

• Unit 7 contains 4 core texts with 100% being informational.

• Unit 8 contains 4 core texts with 100% being informational.

• Unit 9 contains 5 core texts with 60% being literary and 40% being informational.

• Unit 10 contains 4 core texts with 100% being informational.

The materials reviewed for Grade 4 meet the criteria for Indicator 1c. 

Anchor texts range from 700L–1040L, with the majority of texts falling within the Grades 4–5 Lexile Stretch Band. Texts have an appropriate level of qualitative complexity, with most ranging from moderate to high complexity. The qualitative complexity of texts spans dimensions such as complex sets of events and characters that require an understanding of the time period, complicated plots, time shifts, and unfamiliar vocabulary including academic and domain-specific words. The Program Support Guide provides a text complexity analysis and rationale for purpose and placement.

Anchor/core texts have the appropriate level of complexity for the grade according to quantitative and qualitative analysis and relationship to their associated student task. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:

• In Unit 1, Week 3, Days 1–4, the extended read text is “The Secret Spring” (890L), a realistic fiction excerpt from The Yearling by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings. Though the quantitative measure is well within the mid-range of the Grades 4–5 Lexile Stretch Band, the qualitative complexity measure is high. The purpose of the text is to reveal character through dialogue and thoughts. The text includes formal language; complex sentences, some of which contain challenging pronoun/antecedent references; and some unfamiliar vocabulary. Students identify and analyze the figurative language in the text such as similes. Then, students complete a writing prompt analyzing how the theme of conflicts between nature and people is treated across texts in the unit. 

• In Unit 4, Week 3, Day 1, students read "Training" (810L), an excerpt from Black Beauty by Anna Sewell. The quantitative complexity is within the Grades 4–5 Lexile Stretch Band. The text has a very complex qualitative rating due to its domain-specific words and knowledge demands. After analyzing character and point of view in the excerpt, students write a short essay to compare how the texts in the unit address the topic that animals have thoughts, feelings, and personalities like humans. 

• In Unit 6, Week 1, Days 2–4, students read “Sugar Maple and the Woodpecker '' (700L) by Joseph Bruchac and “The Valiant Little Tailor” (790L) by Brothers Grimm. The quantitative complexity for “Sugar Maple and the Woodpecker” falls just below the Grades 4–5 Lexile Stretch Band, while the quantitative complexity for “The Valiant Little Tailor'' falls on the low end of the band. The qualitative complexity for each text is moderate and substantial, respectively. which has Lexile level 700 and the total qualitative measure is moderate complexity. After describing characters and analyzing theme in each text, students work in pairs to analyze how the patterns of events in both texts lead to a solution that is connected to each story’s theme. 

• In Unit 10, Week 1, Days 4–5, students read the short read, “Benjamin Franklin: The Dawn of Electrical Technology” by Laura McDonald. This informational science text has a Lexile level of 1040, which falls well outside the Lexile Stretch Band Range and national student norms for Grade 4. This text conveys key details of Benjamin Franklin’s major discovery that lightning is a form of electricity, along with some information about his other achievements through both firsthand and secondhand accounts. This short read text is of medium complexity and incorporates primarily compound and complex sentences with significant extensive domain-specific vocabulary that encompasses scientific language and concepts and its use of formal 19th-century speech. 

Anchor/Core texts and series of texts connected to them are accompanied by an accurate text complexity analysis and a rationale for educational purpose and placement in the grade level. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Materials include a separate text complexity document for both anchor texts and small group texts. The text complexity documents are accessible as PDFs for each grade in the digital Program Support Guide under the tab for Text Complexity Analyses and Rationales for Purpose and Placement. 

• The Teacher Resource System for each unit also includes introductory materials including a Guide to Text Complexity section that provides an accurate summary of the quantitative and qualitative data for each anchor text in the unit. This guide contains an overall qualitative text complexity measure based on a color-coded system with levels of low complexity, moderate complexity, substantial complexity, and highest complexity. The guide shares a brief statement on the four qualitative measures of each text: Purpose and Levels of Meaning, Structure, Language Conventionality and Clarity, and Knowledge Demands.

• The accuracy of the provided quantitative measures was verified using MetaMetrics or determined using the Lexile Text Analyzer on The Lexile Framework for Reading site. The accuracy of the provided qualitative measures was verified using literary and informational text rubrics.

The materials reviewed for Grade 4 meet the criteria for Indicator 1e.

Materials provide opportunities for students to engage in a range and volume of reading. The anchor texts provide some range of text types, with the majority of texts being informational science or social studies texts. More varied text types are included in the small group instruction Building Knowledge Text Sets. Each unit also includes a novel study that is recommended but not required for independent reading. 

Materials provide support for the teacher to foster independent reading; however, the prompts frequently focus on comprehension strategies. Materials provide independent reading procedures but many are not built into the program framework. The program includes “independent reading mini lessons;” however, there is no schedule or guidance available for teachers to know when to teach these mini lessons. Accountability systems for independent reading include a reading log and corresponding family letter. Materials provide a recommended amount of time students should spend reading, along with a schedule to provide students adequate opportunities to engage in independent reading; however, there is no information on the volume of reading students should do during this time. The Pacing Guide in the Teachers Resource Guide for each unit delineates implementation formats for 90-minute, 120-minute, and 150-minute blocks. For the implementation of the program within a 90-minute reading block, the Read Aloud is removed and the time for small group and independent reading time is combined to 15 minutes or less which would significantly reduce the volume of reading for students, as time allotted for the Building Knowledge Text Sets is reduced. 

Instructional materials clearly identify opportunities and support for students to engage in reading a variety of text types and genres. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Across Units 1-10, the anchor texts include personal essays, realistic fiction, informational life science and social studies texts, biographies, fantasy, dramas and plays, opinion texts, editorials, journals, personal narratives, myths, legends, science fiction, folktales, and narrative poetry. 

• The Building Knowledge Text Sets (in which not every student will access all texts) include fantasy, realistic fiction, journals, social studies texts, biographies, plays, memoirs, procedural texts, opinion, travelog, drama, historical fiction, life science, legends, narrative nonfiction, graphic stories, folktales and personal narrative texts. 

• In Unit 1, Week 1, Days 1-3 students read the informational personal essay “A Bird’s Free Lunch” an excerpt from The Wit of a Duck and Other Papers by John Burrows. In Unit 1, Week 1, Day 4 students read the realistic fiction text “The Reeds and the River” from Bronze and Sunflower by Cao Wenxuan. In Unit 1, Week 2, Days 1-4 students read the informational personal essay “Starting Off” from Mississippi Solo: A River Quest by Eddy L Harris. In Unit 1, Week 3, Days 1-2 students read the realistic fiction text “The Secret Spring” from The Yearling by Majorie Kinnan Rawlings. In Unit 1, Week 3, Day 5 students read the traditional Inuit poem Delight in Nature.

• In Unit 5, Week 1, Days 1-3 students read the informational opinion editorial letter Humans and Robots Can Work Together by Eleanor Hahn. In Unit 5, Week 1, Day 4 students read the informational opinion editorial letter Robots Will Take Professional Jobs by Michael Cavanaugh. In Unit 5, Week 2, Days 1-4 students read the informational opinion text Who’s Driving by Amanda Polidore. In Unit 5, Week 3, Days 1-3 students read the informational opinion text Rise of the Drones by Dang Nguyen and Max Prinz. In Unit 5, Week 3, Day 5 students read a traditional Choctaw poem Sun Tracks. There is a selection of informational texts for small group reading and one science fiction text.

Instructional materials identify opportunities and support for students to engage in a volume of reading. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Students read 50 anchor texts over the course of the year. 20 of these texts are short reads, 20 are extended reads, and 10 are poems. Additionally they read 30 vocabulary practice texts and 10 reader theater texts. Students listen to a read aloud for 10-15 minutes daily.

• Within a school day students listen to a read-aloud for 10-15 minutes, engage with an anchor text, and participate in small group and/or independent reading. 30-40 minutes of independent reading time is suggested per day.

• The Weekly Comprehensive Literacy Planner includes a section titled Independent Reading & Conferring. While materials offer independent reading selections, the teacher is also prompted within the lesson for students to use this time to complete the whole group reading and task. Each day has a focus task for independent reading including “Set Personal Learning Goals,” “Read Independently,” Begin the Blueprint,” “Read the Vocabulary Practice Text,” or “Create a Decision Making Guide.” The planner provides these teacher recommendations for independent reading:

  • Ensure that all students read independently to build volume and stamina.

  • Confer with a few students on their text selections, application of strategies, and knowledge building tasks.

  • See additional independent suggestions (including the Research and Inquiry Project) on the Unit Foldout. 

• In Unit 9, during a three week time period, students read two short reads; an informational social studies text Seattle: Up and Down - and Up Again by Alexandra Hanson-Harding and a narrative poem Cesar: Si Se Puede! Yes We Can and Who Could Tell by Carmen T Bernier-Grand. Students read two extended texts; an informational social studies text Natural Resources and Workers by Alexandra Hanson-Harding and a narrative poem “Dust Dance” from Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse. In addition they read the narrative poem My People by Grace Nicols. Students participate in daily independent and/or small group reading.

There is sufficient teacher guidance to foster independence for all readers (e.g., independent reading procedures, proposed schedule, tracking system for independent reading). Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:

• The teacher edition includes daily Reading and Responding lessons to be used with the anchor texts.

• Materials provide a list of trade books for read alouds that could also be used as recommendations for students during independent reading time.

• Materials include a weekly reading log for both at home and at school, as well as a family letter that coincides with the home reading log.

• Materials offer additional resources to support the teacher with fostering students’ independent reading; however, some of these resources are not a part of the core program or are not incorporated into the daily framework. These materials include:

  • Independent reading mini lessons are provided but information as to when to do them is not included.

  • The Teacher Edition provides Review and Routines which includes independent reading routines. The routines provide information as to what to do during independent reading. They do not provide information for setting up procedures or expectations. Materials also do not provide information on the volume of reading students should be doing during this time.

  • The Additional Resources section includes a Managing Your Independent Reading Guide. This  resource includes teacher guidance on conferring periodically or as often as possible with students. The “Conferring with Students'' section explains what a reading conference is, why teachers should have them and a general idea of how to run one. This section does not give teachers guidance on how to grow independent readers during a conference.

  • Each unit provides a student ebook for recommended independent reading; however, materials do not provide text-specific guidance, student tasks, or accountability measures for the ebook.

The materials reviewed for Grade 4 meet the criteria for Indicator 1f. 

The majority of questions and tasks are text-specific, text-dependent, and require evidence from the text. Activities such as Build, Reflect, Write; Extended Thinking Questions; Apply Understanding; Share and Reflect; Constructive Conversations, and Guided Practice accompany the anchor texts for Short Reads and Extended Reads. When completing many of these tasks, students must use textual evidence to support answers to questions and discussions, both independently and collaboratively. Each unit also includes text-specific questions during which students synthesize or compare and contrast information across texts. 

The Teacher’s Resource System for each unit provides implementation and follow up support for text-dependent questioning and discussion. The Teacher’s Resource System also includes text-dependent questions and tasks for the teacher to use during mini-lessons and small group instruction. The student ebook for each unit’s anchor texts also includes text-dependent questions in the Apply Understanding and Build Knowledge sections after each text. Writing prompts that build toward the unit culminating task are also typically text-dependent. Materials include possible responses for many questions or discussion prompts posed during the mini-lessons. The Small Group texts also include text-dependent questions; however, due to the choice in literacy block length and needs of students, some students may not have the opportunity to respond to all of the text-dependent questions during small group time.

Text-specific and text-dependent questions and tasks support students in making meaning of the core understandings of the texts being studied. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:

• In Unit 1, Week 2, Lesson 8, students focus on key details and making meaning as they read “Starting Off” from Mississippi Solo by Eddie L Harris. Students close read the text to explain the meaning of similes and metaphors. After a teacher model, students work in small groups to respond to this prompt: “Reread paragraphs 5–6. Underline the metaphors. Use them to create a mental image of the lake. Then describe the lake and its surroundings in your own words. Write your description in the margin of the text.”  Then, during independent work, students write a response to the following prompt: “Reread paragraph 8. Underline the similes or metaphors. What is the writer describing? Describe it in your own words.”

• In Unit 5, Week 2, Lesson 8, students read “Who’s Driving?” by Amanda Polidore. During one of the close reads, students respond to the following Apply Understanding question: “Reread paragraphs 8 and 9 of ‘Who’s Driving?’ What would be the effects of unregulated driverless cars? How do the author’s points in these paragraphs support her overall opinion? Annotate text evidence that supports your answer.” Then, in the Build Knowledge Across Texts section, students respond to the following prompt: “Reread ‘Who’s Driving?’ and ‘Robots Will Take Professional Jobs.’ Based on the texts, would you select a driverless car and a robot doctor over a human driver and a human doctor? Write your opinion, and support it with evidence from both texts.”

• In Unit 10, Week 3, Lesson 9, after rereading Benjamin Franklin: The Dawn of Electrical Technology by Laura McDonald and Two Forgotten Electrical Inventors by Alexandra Hanson-Harding, students independently write a response to the following Apply Understanding question: “What qualities does a person need to make important scientific discoveries? Integrate evidence from the lives of Benjamin Franklin, Nikola Tesla, and Hertha Marks Ayrton to support your ideas.” 

Teacher materials provide support for planning and implementation of text-based questions and tasks. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following: 

• In Unit 1, Week 2, Lesson 5, guidance supports the teacher with setting a purpose for the lesson on summarizing a text: “In a summary, we give a broad description of who and/or what the text is about, including the main idea. But we don’t try to relate all the details.” Students write a summary of A Bird’s Free Lunch by John Burroughs. Materials include a model summary for teacher use. 

• In Unit 4, Week 3, Lesson 7, during Constructive Conversation students work with a partner to reread “Training,” an excerpt from Black Beauty” by Anna Sewell, and infer whether Black Beauty’s master is a kind man or a cruel one using evidence from the text to support their inference. Materials include the following possible response to support the teacher: “Inference: Black Beauty’s master is a kind man. Evidence: “My master said he would break me in himself, as he should not like me to be frightened or hurt” (Paragraph 2), “My Master gave me some oats as usual, and after a good deal of coaxing he got the bit into my mouth.” (Paragraph 5)” Materials also include additional support and extension ideas.

• In Unit 7, Week 1, Lesson 13, teachers engage in a rereading of “Building the Transcontinental Railroad” by Max Prinz and model how to locate text evidence to support an argument. The teacher’s guide provides a script for modeling going back to the text to find the supporting evidence: “The evidence in paragraph 2 supports the claim because it shows that the American government and two companies had to get involved to create this project.”

The materials reviewed for Grade 4 meet the criteria for Indicator 1g. 

Materials include regular opportunities for students to engage in discussions with the class or partners. The discussion protocols fall primarily under the following two protocols: Turn and Talk and Constructive Conversations. These discussion opportunities are frequent in the materials and vary in purpose. Guidance for teachers and students includes a question for the teacher to pose, possible student responses, and generic protocol directions through the use of the “Guidance for Effective Classroom, Small Group and Partner Discussion in the Review and Routines Guide.” Most notably, the materials provide a breakdown of each protocol in the “Speaking and Listening Protocols” document found in the Additional Materials section. 

Materials provide varied protocols to support students’ developing speaking and listening skills across the whole year’s scope of instructional materials. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Multiple opportunities to Turn and Talk throughout each unit and the year. These Turn and Talks vary on their structure and their purpose. 

• Each unit contains Discuss the Blueprint lessons. These lessons include a Constructive Conversations component. The directions remain the same throughout the units and the school year. 

• Under Additional Resources for each unit, materials provide a Real-World Perspectives Supporting Constructive Conversations reproducible for use with the corresponding lesson of the unit. This reproducible tells students the different parts of a Constructive Conversation and includes sentence stems for student use during each part. According to the reproducible, the five parts of a Constructive Conversation include state ideas; clarify ideas; support and build up ideas; introduce, clarify, and support a second idea; and evaluate and compare ideas. The reproducible includes 5 Respectful Conversation Tips and a Build Knowledge Word Bank. The reproducible starts with the first 3 parts of the conversation and adds the fourth and fifth step as the year progresses. The Build Knowledge Word Bank changes from unit to unit.

• In the Launch materials, students learn about being an active listener during the Day 2 mini lesson. “Conduct a brief discussion about what people do to be active listeners. List suggestions given by students on the anchor chart. Some important things to include could be as follows: - Have eyes on the speaker, - Maintain a quiet body, - Use appropriate expression to show interest, - Be patient while the speaker chooses what to say. Give enough wait time - Think carefully about what the speaker is saying.” 

• In the Research and Inquiry guide for teachers, the margin on page 10 provides Options for Presenting for student use. The options are the same for each research project and the following is provided:

  • “There are many ways that students can share with one another. Choose one that works well in your classroom setting.

  • Whole group: Students can present to the entire class.

  • Small group: Break students into groups of 3–4 to present to one another.

  • Partnerships: Pair students up to share their projects.

  • Video: Students can film their presentation and share them on a digital platform.

  • Visits: Students can visit other classrooms to share what they have created and learned, or guests can join you in the classroom in person or virtually.

  • Out in the World: If the inquiry project is one that would be useful for others, students can mail or email the project.”

• In Unit 1, Week 3, Lesson 14, the teacher reviews the “Rules of Conversation” anchor chart. The Rules listed include:

  • Give the speaker eye contact.

  • Show interest by nodding occasionally and smiling.

  • Let everyone have a chance to talk.

  • Value others’ thinking.

  • Ask questions if you don’t understand.

  • Speak clearly and listen attentively.

• In Unit 3, Week 3, Lesson 14, students engage in a Constructive Conversation to work as a group to discuss their Blueprint and “how the government impacts people’s lives” After the group discussion, each group “shares the highlights of their conversation with the whole group.”

• In Unit 9, Week 1, Lesson 3,  students engage in a discussion with a partner on how the intended audience impacts their multimedia presentation. Teacher guidance includes, “Have students work in pairs to discuss what the purpose of the mentor presentation is, and who its intended audience might be. Students should be prepared to present details and examples from the video to support their reasoning.” 

Speaking and listening instruction includes facilitation, monitoring, and instructional support for teachers. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:

• In the Teacher Resource material, under the Additional Materials section for each unit, materials include a document that provides general teacher guidance on “Maximizing the Quality of Classroom Constructive Conversations.” This guidance is the same throughout all units across the year.

  • For example, the resource states, “Teachers and students can better understand how to improve conversations with the tools that accompany the Benchmark Advance program. The first tool, the ‘Conversation Blueprint,’ is a visual guide to help teachers scaffold students’ conversations. This tool shows the structure of the two main types of conversations that should happen during lessons. The tools especially designed for students are the … Think-Speak-Listen Flip Book…” These tools offer sentence systems for various skills within a conversation.”

• The Discuss the Blueprint Constructive Conversations lessons include an Observational Checklist for Constructive Conversations for teacher use. Guidance in the Observational Checklist includes: “As peers engage in conversation, use the questions below to evaluate how effectively they communicate with each other. Based on your answers, you may wish to plan future lessons to support the constructive conversation process.” Questions include, “stay on topic throughout the discussion?, listen respectfully?, build on the comments of others?”

• In Unit 3, Week 3, Lesson 4, students complete a close read of “Stanley’s Release,” an excerpt from the book Holes by Louis Sachar. During the Constructive Conversation: Partner section of the mini-lesson, students close-read part of the text and analyze it together. Materials provide guidance for teachers on how to respond to the conversations they hear: “To provide additional support or extend the experience, use Reinforce or Reaffirm the Strategy. Then call on a few students to share their answers to the close reading question with the whole class.”

• In Unit 6, Week 1, Lesson 7, in Connect Skills to Knowledge: Turn and Talk, teacher guidance includes, “Pose questions that require students to use their knowledge of determining a theme to focus on Enduring Understanding 4 from the Knowledge Blueprint (Analyzing how characters confront challenges helps reveal a story’s theme). Ask partners to share ideas using words from the Build Knowledge Word Bank. Invite a few students to share their ideas.” 

• In Unit 9, Week 2, Lesson 4, students read “Natural Resources and Workers” by Alexandra Hanson-Harding. During the Constructive Conversation section of the mini-lesson, students discuss their annotations of the key details that help them find the main idea of the text. The margin of the Teacher’s Resource System provides an Observation Checklist for Constructive Conversation: “As peers engage in close reading, use the questions below to evaluate how effectively they communicate with each other. Based on your answers, you may wish to plan future lessons to support the constructive conversation process. Do peers…

  • stay on topic throughout the discussion? 

  • listen respectfully? 

  • build on the comments of others appropriately? 

  • pose or respond to questions to clarify information? 

  • support their peers?” 

The materials reviewed for Grade 4 meet the criteria for Indicator 1h. 

Throughout the year, students typically have the opportunity to engage in speaking and listening daily, including opportunities to speak in whole group, partner, and small group settings. In some units, students engage in whole group presentations. These opportunities include speaker and audience expectations in the form of teacher directions and anchor charts. The materials provide partner sharing and small group discussion opportunities during the majority of speaking and listening tasks. Students complete a Knowledge Blueprint graphic organizer during the unit and hold a class discussion on what they learned at the end of the unit; the Knowledge Blueprint is expanded upon throughout the unit. Materials include opportunities to implement agreed upon rules for discussions, partner and small group work, and to guide students on answering questions about a speaker. While the materials do provide opportunities for students to address all of the Speaking and Listening standards, some of the activities are optional or at the discretion of the teacher. 

Students have many opportunities over the school year to demonstrate what they are reading through varied speaking and listening opportunities. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Come to discussions prepared, having read or studied required material; explicitly draw on that preparation and other information known about the topic to explore ideas under discussion. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • In Unit 2, Week 2, students engage in a partner discussion to make inferences about the character in the text. “Have students read pages 14–15 together, focusing on Wendy. Encourage students to use the details to draw inferences about Wendy’s character and personality (e.g., from the stage direction ‘politely,’ they can infer Wendy has good manners).” 

  • In Unit 10, Week 1, students engage in a Constructive Conversation to discuss a section of the texts. “Reread paragraphs 1–4. Identify one claim the author makes about the effect of the blackout as well as one claim she makes about the cause. Cite the evidence the author provides to back up each of these claims.” 

• Follow agreed-upon rules for discussions and carry out assigned roles. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • In Unit 5, Week 3, students engage in a Constructive Conversation with a partner to “[r]eread paragraphs 3–5 of ‘Cage the Machines’” and respond to the following discussion prompt: “How does the author use text structure to describe the purpose of FAA regulation, or rules? Underline text evidence that supports your answer.” The teacher informs students that “[t]heir conversations should focus on the question, and they should respectfully work together to help each other find details to answer the question.” 

• Add audio recordings and visual displays to presentations when appropriate to enhance the development of main ideas or themes. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • Although visual displays are included in presentations, such as in Unit 9, Week 2, Lesson 11, students are not required to add audio recordings to presentations. 

  • In the Grade 4 Reader’s Theater Handbook, Unit 5, Lesson 1, Discuss Staging, the materials indicate that the teacher should “consider whether to video- or audiotape the performance to post on a sharing website or add to students’ portfolios.” While teachers have the option to have students create audio recordings, it is not a requirement in the core materials.

  • In Unit 8, Week 3, Lesson 5, the teacher models how to add an illustration or diagram, including a caption, to a research report. During independent time, students work in completing the final draft of their research report with illustrations. 

Speaking and listening work sometimes requires students to utilize, apply, and incorporate evidence from texts and/or sources. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Pose and respond to specific questions to clarify or follow up on information, and make comments that contribute to the discussion and link to the remarks of others. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • In Unit 7, Week 3, during the Real-World Perspectives: Constructive Conversations task, students work in small groups to discuss the following questions:

    • “What did you learn about the transcontinental railroad-and about yourself- from your journal entry?

    • Were the experiences you included similar to or different from the experiences of the people you read about?

    • What new thoughts about the Essential Question do you have?”

Students “[s]hare, clarify, and build up ideas with [their] group” during the discussion. 

• Review the key ideas expressed and explain their own ideas and understanding in light of the discussion. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • In Unit 7, Week 2, students engage in a Constructive Conversation with a partner to compare the experiences of Chinese workers in two different texts. Students ”[r]eread paragraphs 6–8 of ‘Building the Transcontinental Railroad’ and paragraphs 9–10 of ‘The Chinese Railroad Workers.’ Compare the experience of the Chinese rail workers to that of other Americans after the completion of the transcontinental railroad. Underline key events and details in each selection.” Then students share their responses with another partner group. 

• Paraphrase portions of a text read aloud or information presented in diverse media and formats, including visually, quantitatively, and orally. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • In Unit 2, Week 3, students engage in a Constructive Conversation with a partner to compare the text and an oral narrative of the text: “Compare your experience of listening to ‘Peter’s Shadow,’ a novel, to your experience of listening to ‘Peter Meets Wendy,’ a drama. How did the experience of listening to the two versions compare to reading them? What were the advantages and drawbacks of hearing the texts read aloud?”

• Identify the reasons and evidence a speaker provides to support particular points. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • In the Research and Inquiry Project Teacher’s Guide Grade 4, Unit 4, Step 5, students present their research projects to the class. The materials direct teachers to say, “Listeners: After the presentation, you will be asked to identify the reasons and evidence the presenter provided to support particular points about the animal. So pay close attention to the speaker and think carefully about what you hear.”

• Report on a topic or text, tell a story, or recount an experience in an organized manner, using appropriate facts and relevant, descriptive details to support main ideas or themes; speak clearly at an understandable pace. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • In Unit 10, Week 2, students participate in a Constructive Conversation. While working with a partner, students “[r]eread paragraph 1 of ‘The Power of Electricity.’ Identify and then underline the key details in your text. Use these key details to summarize the main idea of the paragraph.” 

The materials reviewed for Grade 4 meet the criteria for Indicator 1i. 

Materials provide opportunities for on-demand writing and longer process writing tasks throughout the school year. Mini-lessons provide students with direct instruction, guided practice, and independent time for writing. Students engage in a variety of genres of writing tasks including, but not limited to, informative/explanatory, opinion, narrative, and poetry. At the end of each text or text set, students have opportunities to write in response to text and are required to cite text evidence in their response. With multi-day writing tasks, the teacher models various revision and editing strategies and students have time to revise and edit their writing. Materials provide guidance for digital opportunities with some writing tasks. Materials also include additional guided inquiry projects aligned with unit(s) topics that can be incorporated within the unit. 

Materials include on-demand writing opportunities that cover a year’s worth of instruction. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:

• In Unit 3, Week 1, students write a 1–2 paragraph summary when responding to questions in the Apply Understanding section: “How would you summarize the three paragraphs of ‘The First Town Meeting’ on page 8? Write a summary, citing details from the text.” Later, students summarize the entire text. Students use summarizing and synthesizing anchor charts to assist them in their tasks. 

• In Unit 6, Week 3, during the Write to Demonstrate Knowledge section, students write 1–2 paragraphs about their knowledge of the unit’s topic, “How do we overcome obstacles?”

• In Unit 10, Week 3, students reread the Enduring Understandings from the unit. Then, students write a response to each one, referring to specific knowledge from the unit and their culminating project, a questionnaire about electricity. 

Materials include process writing opportunities that cover a year’s worth of instruction. Opportunities for students to revise and edit are provided. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:

• In Unit 2, Week 3, students engage in a mini-lesson in order to revise their opinion essay for effective words. Teachers model three examples of how the writer added a word or a phrase for a specific effect using the mentor text. Students then work with a partner to mark sentences in their essays that are bland or vague. Then students work on revising their essays. 

• In Unit 5, Week 3, students engage in a mini-lesson to revise their opinion essay to include domain specific vocabulary. Teachers model how to include domain-specific vocabulary with the model text. Then students work with a partner to create a list of possible domain-specific words for their topic. Finally students revise their essay to add domain-specific words. 

• In Unit 7, Week 1, students work on planning a historical fiction piece. The teacher models using a Brainstorming Chart that includes; Time Periods, Story Ideas, and What Readers Might Learn. Using a Brainstorming Chart students discuss their story ideas with a partner. During Independent Writing time students continue developing their historical fiction stories. Students work on their historical fiction piece through Unit 7, Week 3, when students use computers to create final copies of their piece.

Materials include digital resources where appropriate. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following: 

• All units include Build-Reflect-Write eNotebooks for student use when responding to the close reading text Apply Understanding questions and Culminating Activity Enduring Understanding questions, as well as when completing Build Vocabulary tasks, Build Grammar and Language tasks, and graphic organizers for their Research and Inquiry project.

• In Unit 3, Week 3, students use computers to write the final drafts of their essays. Materials also include a Keyboarding Practice Lesson that can be given to students who need to practice keyboarding proficiency. 

• In Unit 9, Week 1, the teacher models note taking from a website. During Guided Practice, students work with a partner to use the same web page to practice answering a research question. During independent time, students use online resources to begin their research.

• In Unit 10, Week 2, students may create their final draft of their Cinguin on the computer. The teacher reminds students “to consider using special features, such as an interesting or colorful font, a border, and an illustration or photograph to enhance the poem’s effect.”

The materials reviewed for Grade 4 meet the criteria for Indicator 1j. 

Across the year, students engage in a variety of writing text types through many different types of writing activities. Materials include an entire unit on text-based prompts and a unit on process writing for each of the writing types. The Program Support Guide includes a K-6 Year-Long Writing Scope and Sequence indicating which writing types and standards are the focus of each unit. There is a balance between writing in response to texts as well as process writing on a topic aligned to the unit focus. The writing mini-lessons occur daily and each unit utilizes multiple anchor charts, checklists, and graphic organizers called planning guides to support and guide students through each writing process. The majority of units include mentor texts for students to analyze before writing their own pieces. 

Materials provide multiple opportunities across the school year for students to learn, practice, and apply different genres/modes/types of writing that reflect the distribution required by the standards. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:

• The following percentages or number of writing opportunities for opinion writing encompass the writing types and prompts from the writing mini-lessons across the year but do not include the daily text-based questions:

  • Approximately 28% of the writing in Grade 4 is opinion writing. Students have opportunities to engage in opinion writing as the focus of Unit 2 and Unit 5. In Unit 6, Week 3, students also use opinion writing for a text-based prompt. 

• The following percentages or number of writing opportunities for informative/explanatory writing encompass the writing types and prompts from the writing mini-lessons across the year but do not include the daily text-based questions:

  • Approximately 36% of writing in Grade 4 is informative/explanatory writing. Students have opportunities to engage in informative/explanatory writing as the focus of Units 1, 3, 8, and 9. Both the Research Project in Unit 8 and the Multimedia Project in Unit 9 are informational. In Unit 6, Week 2 students also use informative writing for a text-based prompt.

• The following percentages or number of writing opportunities for narrative writing encompass the writing types and prompts from the writing mini-lessons across the year but do not include the daily text-based questions:

  • Approximately 36% of writing in Grade 4 is narrative writing. Students have opportunities to focus on narrative writing in Unit 4 and Unit 7. In Unit 6, Week 1, students also use narrative writing for a text-based prompt. This percentage also includes the poetry writing students do in Unit 10.

• Explicit instruction in opinion writing:

  • In Unit 2, students engage in opinion writing to a text-based prompt. Week 1 students analyze a response to a mentor writing prompt based on two texts. The teacher models opinion writing using the Opinion Essay Checklist. In Week 2, students receive their prompt: “After reading “Dorothy Meets the Scarecrow'' and “How Dorothy Saved the Scarecrow,” write an essay in which you give your opinion about which selection, the narrative of the play, better helped you understand the scarecrow’s character. The teacher uses a Character and Details Chart and the Opinion Essay Planning Guide and is prompted to “model how you organize your ideas by combining and categorizing evidence and reasons that support your opinion.”

• Explicit instruction in informative/explanatory writing:

  • In Unit 3, students engage in process writing to complete an informative/explanatory essay. In the opening writing lesson, the teacher tells students, “In this unit, you’ll have the opportunity to plan, research, draft, revise, and edit an Informative/Explanatory Essay about a problem the government helps solve. Today we’ll read a writing checklist together, and then we’ll brainstorm problems or topics we can research and write about.” The teacher uses the checklist and the provided “Informative/Explanatory Essay” anchor chart to help students break down the process. Week 1 focuses on selecting credible sources and tracking information gathering. 

• Explicit instruction in narrative writing: 

  • In Unit 7 students plan, draft, revise, edit, and publish historical fiction narratives. In Week 1, the teacher shares the Historical Fiction Writing Checklist and the Historical Fiction Anchor Chart and explains them to students. The teacher models selecting a historical time period and setting. With a partner students discuss interesting time periods and begin imagining characters or story ideas. Students continue to plan, draft, revise, and edit their historical fiction narrative through Week 3, when students check paragraphing, set margins, and publish.

Different genres/modes/types of writing are distributed throughout the school year. 

• Students have opportunities to engage in opinion writing. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following: 

  • Introduce a topic or text clearly, state an opinion, and create an organizational structure in which related ideas are grouped to support the writer's purpose. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:

    • In Unit 5, Week 1, the teacher models brainstorming, choosing credible sources, and organizing an opinion essay. In Mini-Lesson 11 teachers display an Opinion Essay anchor chart and models how to start with your opinion, then list reasons to support that opinion, and finally gather evidence. During independent time students organize their reasons and evidence on their own planner. 

  • Provide reasons that are supported by facts and details. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:

    • In Unit 5, Week 2, the teacher explains why a writer “needs to persuade readers with facts and ideas that provide support for their opinion” by taking details and facts from research to support opinions.  During independent work time, students draft their opinion essays by adding research from their notes into their essay.  

  • Link opinion and reasons using words and phrases (e.g., for instance, in order to, in addition). Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:

    • In Unit 2, Week 3, the teacher models revising the mentor opinion essay by adding words and phrases for effect.  Students work in pairs to mark sentences in their drafts that are “bland or vague” and talk about where they could add words or phrases to “make their reasoning stronger and more precise.”  During independent work time, students revise their texts, looking for “opportunities to add transitions, modal auxiliary verbs, and emphasize words or phrases.”

  • Provide a concluding statement or section related to the opinion presented. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:

    • In Unit 2, Week 1, the teacher models restating opinions in a concluding statement or paragraph in an opinion writing piece.  During independent writing time, students write a new conclusion to the mentor essay that “conveys a similar message in a different way.”

• Students have opportunities to engage in informative/explanatory writing. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • Introduce a topic clearly and group related information in paragraphs and sections; include formatting (e.g., headings), illustrations, and multimedia when useful to aiding comprehension. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:

    • In Unit 3, Week 2, the teacher models introducing a topic for an informative/explanatory essay about the government’s response tod disease outbreaks.  Students work with a partner to review interesting details that they may be able to use in their own introductions.  During independent work time, students begin to draft their introductions.  

  • Develop the topic with facts, definitions, concrete details, quotations, or other information and examples related to the topic. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:

    • In Unit 8, Week 2, the teacher models developing body paragraphs that include a main idea and supporting details. Students work in pairs to review their drafts and discuss the main idea of each section and how they can add details to support the main idea.  During independent work time, students add details to their writing to support the main idea.  

  • Link ideas within categories of information using words and phrases (e.g., another, for example, also, because). Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:

    • In Unit 8, Week 2, the teacher models using linking words and phrases to connect ideas and sentences in a research project.  The Students work in pairs to review their drafts and look for places where linking words and phrases would improve their writing.  During independent work time, students review their drafts and add linking words and phrases to help improve the flow of their writing and how ideas relate to one another.  

  • Use precise language and domain-specific vocabulary to inform about or explain the topic. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:

    • In Unit 3, Week 3, the teacher models how to make writing stronger by using domain specific vocabulary.  Students work with a partner to make a list of domain specific vocabulary they can add to their writing and discuss the effect that each word would have on their essay.  During independent work time, students revise their essays to use domain specific words correctly.  

  • Provide a concluding statement or section related to the information or explanation presented. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:

    • In Unit 3, Week 2, the teacher models providing a concluding section for the model essay related to how the government deals with disease outbreaks.  Students work with a partner to discuss ideas for their individual concluding paragraphs.  During independent work time, students draft their essays, including their concluding statements or sections.  

• Students have opportunities to engage in narrative writing. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • Orient the reader by establishing a situation and introducing a narrator and/or characters; organize an event sequence that unfolds naturally. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:

    • In Unit 4, Week 1, the teacher models how to use text details to understand a character’s voice and enhance a story.  Students work in pairs to read paragraphs and add more details to develop the narrator’s voice.  During independent work time, students add additional details to their writing to “reveal the narrator’s voice and what those details tell the reader about the character.”

  • Use dialogue and description to develop experiences and events or show the responses of characters to situations. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:

    • In Unit 7, Week 2, the teacher models using details and description to bring the stories to life.  Students work in pairs to review their work and decide where they can add descriptive details to further develop their writing.  During independent work time, students add descriptive details to their individual writing pieces to add understanding, interest, and cohesion.  

  • Use a variety of transitional words and phrases to manage the sequence of events. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:

    • In Unit 4, Week 3, the teacher models using transitional words and phrases “to make the sequence of events clear for readers and to help show the relationship between ideas in the passage.”  Students review their work to determine where they can add transitional words and phrases.  During independent work time, students revise their individual narratives to add transitional words and phrases.  

  • Use concrete words and phrases and sensory details to convey experiences and events precisely. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:

    • In Unit 4, Week 3, the teacher models using sensory details and descriptive language to “convey the experience more precisely.  This helps the reader more easily visualize the scene because I’ve shown them exactly what the science looks like, how Cracker and the man behave, and how Cracker feels.”  During independent work time, students revise their narratives to include sensory details.  

  • Provide a conclusion that follows from the narrated experiences or events. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:

    • In Unit 4, Week 3, students write a new ending to a narrative text. “At the end of “Something Uneasy in the Air,” Cracker snarls at the stranger in uniform. Write a continuation of the narrative, describing what might happen when the soldier leaves with Cracker. Be sure to use what you have learned about the setting, characters, and plot in the excerpt.” 

Where appropriate, writing opportunities are connected to texts and/or text sets (either as prompts, models, anchors, or supports). Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:

• In Unit 1, Week 1, teachers model how to write a main idea statement. Then students work with a partner to practice writing a main idea statement. Then, students write a main idea statement from their independent reading texts. 

• In Unit 4, Week 1, students answer the question “Think about the mental images you made of Cracker as you were reading. What two adjectives would you use to describe Cracker? Use text evidence to support your choices. “

• In Unit 9, Week 1, students “...write a paragraph that discusses how “Seattle Up and Down—and Up Again” and “César: ¡Sí, Se Puede! Yes, We Can!” present two different views of the economy.”

The materials reviewed for Grade 4 meet the criteria for Indicator 1k. 

The majority of units feature text-based prompts or process writing prompts that explicitly require students to gather and use evidence from either anchor texts or outside sources such as websites. Evidence-based writing instruction occurs during writing lessons and includes intentional modeling, practice, and analysis. Teacher modeling typically uses graphic organizers or anchor charts, think-alouds, and underlining in the text where to find evidence. Each unit includes three writing prompts and 1–2 longer writing texts in which students must use text evidence in their responses. 

Materials provide frequent opportunities across the school year for students to learn, practice, and apply writing using evidence. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:

• In Unit 2, Week 1, Mini-Lesson 9, the teacher models how to use evidence to form an opinion. Lesson guidance is as follows: “Create and display a three‑column Develop an Opinion Chart showing text excerpts from the play and the narrative. Read aloud the excerpts from ‘Doing What Comes Naturally.’ Model how you use the evidence to form your opinion.” Materials include a script and sample three-column chart for teacher use to support modeling. 

• In Unit 6, Week 3, Mini-Lesson 8, the teacher models how to state an opinion and reasons that support the opinion. After reviewing the Mentor Writing Prompt with students, the teacher models how to deconstruct the prompt and address the prompt using the Mentor Planning Guide. Then, the teacher models how to reread the Mentor Source Text to find an example that supports their reason and adds this information to the planning guide. Materials include a script and sample Mentor Planning Guide for teacher use. 

• In Unit 8, Week 2, Mini-Lesson 3, the teacher models how to create an effective and engaging introduction when writing an essay. The teacher uses the Modeling Text to model how to “[create] an introduction that presents the main idea of your essay to your readers in an engaging and interesting way.” Materials include a script and sample introduction for teacher use. 

Writing opportunities are focused around students’ recall of information to develop opinions from reading closely and working with evidence from texts and sources.

• In Unit 2, Weeks 1–3, students read two texts, including a mentor writing text, and respond to a text-based opinion prompt: “After reading ‘Dorothy Meets the Scarecrow’ and ‘How Dorothy Saved the Scarecrow,’ write an essay in which you give your opinion about which selection, the narrative or the play, better helped you understand the scarecrow’s character.” Students use the Character and Details chart to analyze the texts to compare the different types of information from both texts before planning their essay response. 

• In Unit 5, Week 2, students “[r]eread paragraph 10 of ‘Who’s Driving?’” and write 1–2 paragraphs in their notebook or e-notebook in response to the following prompt: “Why does the author introduce an argument for driverless cars? How does she use it to support her overall opinion? Identify the text evidence that supports your answer.” The bottom of each writing page in the e-notebook contains the following checklist: 

  • “State an answer to the question.

  • Cite specific evidence from the texts to support the answer.

  • Check spelling, grammar, and punctuation.” 

• In Unit 9, Week 3, students integrate information from two texts when writing 1–2 paragraphs in response to the following Applying Understanding task: “What causes greater hardship for workers—nature or society? Use information from at least two texts in this unit to support your opinion.”

The materials reviewed for Grade 4 meet the expectations of Indicator 1l.

Materials include explicit instruction for all grammar and usage standards for the grade level. Student practice opportunities are designed to lead to mastery of the standards. Instruction on grammar and usage occurs in context within anchor reading texts and in grammar lessons provided in the writing block. Student practice is included in Grammar in Context lessons, the Phonics and Word Study Resource Book, and the Build-Reflect-Write e-Notebook. The Grammar & Spelling Activity Book contains opportunities to further reinforce students’ skills through guided practice, scaffolded learning, independent work, in class or for homework. Students routinely apply grammar and usage standards to their writing. All grammar lessons require students to return to their writing to edit for recently-taught skills, and students edit their writing for appropriate usage. 

Materials include explicit instruction of all grammar and usage standards for the grade level. For example:

• Use relative pronouns (who, whose, whom, which, that) and relative adverbs (where, when, why).

  • In Unit 5, Week 2, Lesson 7, the teacher indicates the lesson focus is on relative adverbs (where, when, why). The teacher displays a chart and reviews the relative adverb and the reference (place, time, reason). 

    • In the Build-Reflect-Write e-Notebook, Unit 5, Week 2, students write their own sentence containing a relative adverb that refers to time, place, or reason. 

  • In Unit 5, Week 3, Lesson 5, the teacher indicates the lesson focus is on relative pronouns (who, whom, whose, which, that). The teacher displays a chart with the relative pronouns and the noun they refer to (people, animal, or thing). The teacher models how to identify the relative pronoun in a sentence. 

    • In the Build-Reflect-Write e-Notebook, Unit 5, Week 3, students write a set of sentences using a different relative pronoun in each sentence. 

• Form and use the progressive (e.g., I was walking; I am walking; I will be walking) verb tenses.

  • In Unit 3, Week 2, Lesson 13, the teacher models forming and using the present progressive tense. The teacher displays the Verb Tense Chart and reviews that verbs in the present tense describe something that is happening now, verbs in the past tense describe something that happened in the past, and verbs in the future tense describe something that will happen in the future. “The present progressive tense describes a continuing action in the present.”

    • In the Build-Reflect-Write e-Notebook, Unit 3, Week 2, students write their own sentences using a verb in present progressive tense to describe a continuing action happening now. 

  • In Unit 4, Week 1, Lesson 8, the teacher reviews present progressive tense and introduces past progressive tense using the past tense of the verb to be. 

    • In the Build-Reflect-Write e-Notebook, Unit 4, Week 1, students write their own sentence using a verb in past progressive tense to describe a continuing action that happened in the past. 

• Use modal auxiliaries (e.g., can, may, must) to convey various conditions.

  • In Unit 2, Week 2, Lesson 7, the teacher displays and reads a list of common modal auxiliary verbs and discusses their contributions to the meaning of a sentence.

    • In the Build-Reflect-Write e-Notebook, Unit 2, Week 2, students write their own sentences using a modal auxiliary verb. 

  • In Unit 6, Week 1, Lesson 8, the teacher reminds students they have learned about modal auxiliaries in previous lessons and that a modal auxiliary verb helps express the action of the main verb in a sentence and contributes additional meaning. The teacher displays and reads modeling text “Sugar Maple and Woodpecker,” modeling the different meanings of can. “In sentence one, can expresses ability. She “is able” to play the piano. In sentence two, can expresses permission: You “are allowed” to go to recess.”

    • In the Build-Reflect-Write e-Notebook, Unit 6, Week 1, students write their own sentences using the modal auxiliary can to give permission or suggest a possibility. 

• Order adjectives within sentences according to conventional patterns (e.g., a small red bag rather than a red small bag).

  • In Unit 1, Week 3, Lesson 8, the teacher discusses using multiple adjectives and models the thinking process about the correct order. The teacher indicates when multiple adjectives appear in text, commas separate the adjectives. The teacher models revising a sentence to include multiple adjectives. The teacher asks students to revise a sentence using two adjectives in the correct order. During independent writing, students look for opportunities to add adjectives. The teacher confers with students during independent and small group conferring and comments on the use and order of adjectives in student writing. 

  • In Unit 1, Week 1, Lesson 14, the teacher tells students that when multiple adjectives are used before a noun, they must follow the following order: number, quality (or opinion), size, shape, age, color, origin, material, purpose. The teacher uses the modeling text to read and discuss adjectives in the correct order. Students write a sentence about their school that uses three adjectives in the correct order. Students write two or more sentences containing sequences of adjectives in the correct order. 

• Form and use prepositional phrases.

  • In Unit 1, Week 1, Lesson 8, the teacher models identifying prepositional phrases in sample sentences. The teacher displays and reads paragraph 3 from “A Bird’s Free Lunch” in Observing Nature. The teacher points out that all the prepositional phrases in the sentence answer the question where?.

    • In the Build-Reflect-Write e-Notebook, Unit 1, Week 1, students write their own sentences using two prepositional phrases to describe the location of something. 

    • In the Grammar and Spelling Activity Book, Unit 1, Week 1, students complete seven cloze sentences. Each sentence has two prepositional phrase choices; students circle the correct prepositional word and write the word on the blank line in the sentence. 

    • In the Grammar and Spelling Activity Book, Unit 1, Week 3, students complete the following activity: “Underline the prepositional phrase in each sentence. Then, circle the question that the prepositional phrase answers.”

• Produce complete sentences, recognizing and correcting inappropriate fragments and run-ons.

  • In Unit 1, Week 3, Lesson 11, the teacher reminds students about sentence fragments. The teacher displays three sentences, identifies the sentence fragment, and models how to correct the fragment in the first two sentences. The teacher asks students to work with a partner to identify the fragment in the third sentence and share how to correct it. During independent work time, the teacher reminds students to look for sentence fragments in their drafts. The teacher confers with students and comments on the presence or absence of sentence fragments in their drafts. The teacher leads students through a guided practice identifying and correcting fragments. 

  • In Unit 8, Week 2, Lesson 13, the teacher models identifying sentence fragments and run-on sentences saying, “A complete sentence must include a subject and a verb. If either of those are missing, the result is a sentence fragment. A run-on sentence is made of two independent clauses, but these clauses are not connected by a contraction or punctuation.” Students work with a partner to read four additional sentences and identify the sentences as a run-on or fragment. Students work with their partners to revise the sentences into complete sentences. The teacher confirms the student responses in a whole group discussion.

    • In the Build-Reflect-Write e-Notebook, Unit 8, Week 2, students write a complete sentence that contains a subject and verb. 

• Correctly use frequently confused words (e.g., to, too, two; there, their).

  • In Unit 4, Week 2, Lesson 7, the teacher defines homophones and indicates that words can sound the same when reading and attention to spelling and meaning is required when writing. The teacher reviews spelling and use of the words to, too, two.

  • In Unit 4, Week 2, Lesson 13, the teacher models identifying the frequently confused word in “Ready to Race” saying, “The word sew in sentence 1 sounds exactly the same as the word so, spelled s-o, but the two words have different meanings. I know the word spelled s-e-w means to stitch pieces of fabric together with needle and thread, and the word s-o means “for that reason.” This sentence talks about stitching, so I know the correct word is sew, spelled s-e-w. I’ll look up the two words in the dictionary, just to make sure.”

    • In the Build-Reflect-Write e-Notebook, Unit 4, Week 2, students write their own sentences correctly using a frequently-confused word. 

• Use correct capitalization.

  • In Unit 7, Week 1, Lesson 8, the teacher reviews capitalization, including “proper nouns, the first letter in a sentence, the beginning of a line of dialogue, the pronoun I, and titles.” 

    • In the Build-Reflect-Write e-Notebook, Unit 7, Week 1, students use correct capitalization to write a sentence containing two proper nouns.

• Use commas and quotation marks to mark direct speech and quotations from a text.

  • In Unit 3, Week 3, Lesson 8, the teacher indicates, “quotation marks are used to quote text from other sources.” The teacher points out a sentence and states, “there are quotation marks around the quote.” Students practice identifying the placement of quotation marks in three additional sentences in the modeling text. Students revise their writing draft and note or revise the proper use of quotations for citing text in their draft. 

  • In Unit 7, Week 1, Lesson 14, the teacher reviews using commas and quotations in dialogue. The teacher displays text and states, “whatever words are spoken by a character need to be placed between quotation marks.” The teacher indicates commas should be used to denote speaker tags and before the end quotation mark. During guided practice, students revise capitalization and punctuation in three sentences; two sentences include dialogue needing commas and quotation marks. 

• Use a comma before a coordinating conjunction in a compound sentence.

  • In Unit 7, Week 3, Lesson 5, the teacher reviews using commas and states commas are used in “coordinating conjunctions to combine independent clauses.” The teacher provides an example sentence and points out the clauses and the use of the comma.

    • In the Build-Reflect-Write e-Notebook, Unit 7, Week 1, students write a compound sentence using a comma before the coordinating conjunction. 

  • In Unit 8, Week 3, Lesson 5, the teacher indicates “we put a comma before a coordinating conjunction when we connect two independent clauses” and defines independent clauses. The teacher displays a sentence with a coordinating conjunction and points out the comma. A student volunteer explains the use of the comma in a compound sentence. 

    • In the Grammar and Spelling Activity Book, Unit 8, Week 3, students complete the following activity: “Write a compound sentence using the two simple sentences and the coordinating conjunction in ( ). Be sure to include a comma in the appropriate place to join the sentences.”

• Spell grade-appropriate words correctly, consulting references as needed.

  • In Unit 4, Week 1, Lesson 1, Phonics and Word Study Resource Book, the teacher writes the words mailbox, rubber band, and time-out. The teacher reviews compound words. Students sort a list of words into a chart headed open, closed, and hyphenated. Students complete a spelling pre-assessment of compound words. Students sort the words into the spelling chart. 

  • In Unit 9, Week 3, Lesson 1, Phonics and Word Study Resource Book, the teacher writes fair, scare, and tear. The teacher reviews /âr/ words and underlines the /âr/spelling in each word. Students sort a list of words into a chart headed air, ear, and are. Students complete a spelling pre-assessment of /âr/words. Students sort the words into the spelling chart. 

  • In Unit 10, Week 1, Lesson 5, The teacher reviews spelling changes for doubling the final consonant, dropping a silent e, changing y to i, and adding es instead of s. The teacher leads students through the guided practice of identifying how to spell words with specific added endings.

    • In the Grammar and Spelling Activity Book, Unit 10, Week 1, students complete the following activity: “Write the spelling words for which the given ending rule applies; drop the final e; drop the final y; double the final consonant.”

• In the Spelling Reference Guide, during mini-lessons, students explore a variety of spelling reference material, look up words in a dictionary, and use a definition to help check and correct spellings.

• Choose words and phrases to convey ideas precisely.

  • In Unit 7, Week 3, Lesson 11, the teacher models revising and editing writing to make it stronger. The teacher explains the purpose of choosing and using precise language, “Conveying your ideas precisely helps readers better understand what is happening in your historical fiction stories.” Students work with a partner to identify sentences in their writing needing editing for precision. Students review their partner’s drafts and discuss unclear sentences.

  • In Unit 9, Week 2, Lesson 7, the teacher defines shades of meaning and indicates “authors use precise words to more clearly describe events, actions, and emotions.” The teacher displays vague and precise words and discusses each group of words. The teacher shows a sentence and models how to revise the sentence with more precise language. 

    • In the Build-Reflect-Write e-Notebook, Unit 9, Week 2, students write their own sentences using precise words to clearly describe events, actions, and emotions. 

• Choose punctuation for effect.

  • In Unit 6, Week 1, Lesson 6, the teacher explains to students that one way writers add interest to and express feelings in their writing is with punctuation. The teacher asks a volunteer to read the sentence “The next day was the big event” adding either an exclamation mark, a question mark, or a period in the end. The teacher guides students to discuss how the meaning and feeling of the sentence change with each punctuation mark.

    • In the Build-Reflect-Write e-Notebook, Unit 9, Week 2, students write their own sentences using punctuation for effect.

  • In Unit 6, Week 2, Lesson 7, the teacher models using exclamation points in sentences and explains how the punctuation affects the sentence meaning. The teacher guides students through noticing exclamation points and question marks in dialogue. The teacher displays a sentence for students to edit with a partner. Students summarize their learning about punctuation.

• Differentiate between contexts that call for formal English (e.g., presenting ideas) and situations where informal discourse is appropriate (e.g., small-group discussion).

  • In Unit 4, Week 3, Lesson 3, the teacher models how dialogue makes readers feel involved in the scene because it draws them in. “The other thing is that dialogue calls for more informal English. Good dialogue reflects the way that people actually speak to one another, which is most often informally. I would never use informal English when writing an essay, but I would use it for dialogue.” Students work with a partner to discuss “how they might include dialogue that sounds realistic” and they share their ideas. During independent writing, students draft a fictional scene. The teacher encourages students to use dialogue. 

  • In Unit 8, Week 3, Lesson 11, the teacher reminds students that writing an essay has a formal and serious tone compared to conversational English. During guided practice, students identify phrases in two sentences that represent informal English and revise the sentences. Students look for their use of informal English in their drafts and revise as needed. 

• Materials include authentic opportunities for students to demonstrate application of skills in context, including applying grammar and convention skills to writing. For example:

  • In Unit 2, Week 1, Lesson 14, students write a paragraph with two or more compound sentences using conjunctions and commas during independent writing time.

  • In Unit 3, Week 3, Lesson 8, after a review of the rules for punctuating direct quotations in a nonfiction text, students edit their informative essays to ensure correct punctuation of quotations. 

  • In Unit 8, Week 3, Lesson 8, after reviewing the rules for forming possessive nouns, students edit their research projects to ensure the correct use of possessives, using the Making Possessives Chart as support.

The materials reviewed for Grade 4 meet the criteria for Indicator 1m. 

The Program Support Guide provides a one-page Year-Long Vocabulary Development Plan which provides the focus word list for each week. Vocabulary relates to the Unit’s theme or topic and appears in the texts and activities students engage in during the lessons. Each unit focuses on different types of vocabulary development including Language of Instruction, General and Domain-Specific Vocabulary, and Word Study/Spelling. Within these focuses, students have opportunities to work with vocabulary including, but not limited to, context clues, determining meaning through roots and affixes, drawing, and acting out words. The digital Program Support Guide includes an expanded version of the Vocabulary Development Plan. Anchor text and close reading texts have selected vocabulary identified and provide brief opportunities for students to define and/or exemplify the words. Vocabulary is explicitly taught before reading each anchor text in various ways.

The Additional Materials section provides several graphic organizers such as a Concept Map or Frayer Model for vocabulary acquisition. Materials also provide a Vocabulary Development Tool that includes graphic organizers and a one-page explanation of the Define/Example/Ask routine which is the main vocabulary routine highlighted in each unit. Materials also provide a Multilingual Glossary that includes a definition, example, and image for each of the focus words for the units. 

Materials provide teacher guidance outlining a cohesive year-long vocabulary development component. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Materials include a year-long vocabulary development plan which lists the explicitly taught words by units and weeks. The list identifies the words as Tier 2 or Tier 3 words. While this document is labeled as a plan, it is a one-page list of words per unit.

• The digital Program Support Guide includes an expanded version of the Vocabulary Development Plan. This plan highlights the vocabulary development research base and the key types of vocabulary instruction used in the materials.

• The Teacher’s Resource System includes a Vocabulary Development section for each unit. This section provides a two-page overview of the Build Knowledge Word Bank, Language of Instruction, General Academic and Domain-Specific words, graphic organizers, and Word Study/Spelling supports. The Build Knowledge Word Bank lists the words that are explicitly taught in the first lesson of each unit and repeated throughout. The Vocabulary Development section also provides a chart that includes the Tier 2 and Tier 3 words that are found in each text. Materials highlight words that are explicitly taught at the beginning of each week and include images of the graphic organizers used to teach these words. Each identified word also includes the page number on which it appears in the student text. 

• Materials provide a Vocabulary Development Tools resource. This resource contains printable vocabulary tools, including an analogy graphic organizer, a concept map, a Frayer model, a vocabulary word study log, vocabulary routines, and making meaning with words. There are two protocols in the Vocabulary Routine section: Define/Example/Ask and a Kate Kinsella routine. During the Kate Kinsella routine, the teacher introduces the word and provides verbal practice for students, and then students engage in written practice. 

• Materials include Vocabulary Routines that the teacher can use to introduce vocabulary words. The routine that is stated in the teacher lesson plans is Define/Example/Ask; however teachers can choose to use the Academic Vocabulary Routine provided in Vocabulary Routines. While the directions for these routines state that teachers should review vocabulary every day, the actual lesson plan does not allot time or provide guidance on vocabulary review other than in the lessons where vocabulary is introduced or when the skill is vocabulary-related. Additionally, teacher guidance for using vocabulary words that are not explicitly taught is unclear.

Vocabulary is repeated in contexts (before texts, in texts) and across multiple texts.

• The Vocabulary Development Plan notes that the Build Knowledge Vocabulary “words and phrases may or may not appear in the unit texts that students read. They were chosen to provide conceptual language that supports the unit topic and Enduring Understandings and for students to use as they communicate and grow their word knowledge within and across grades.” For example, In Unit 5, Unit Resources, Vocabulary Development, the Building Knowledge vocabulary words and phrases are automation, develop, impact, efficient/efficiency, society, and technology. The terms automation and efficiency appear in “Humans and Robots Can Work Together” by Eleanor Hahn. Develop, impact, society, and technology do not appear in any of the unit texts that students read. 

• In Unit 5, the focus is on Technology for Tomorrow. In Week 1, Lesson 1, the teacher explicitly teaches the Build Knowledge Vocabulary, which includes the words develop, efficient/efficiently, technology, society, automation, and impact. In Unit 7, the focus is on The Transcontinental Railroad. In Week 1, Lesson 1, the teacher explicitly teaches the Build Knowledge Vocabulary, which includes the words advances, communities, expansion, devastating, impact, and settle. Students use these words to discuss the concepts and themes and they occur in multiple texts, tasks, and discussions across the unit. Students encounter the word impact when they read the text, “The Railroad’s Impact in Native Americans” by Odia Wood-Krueger. After reading the text, in the Build Toward the Culminating Task activity, students respond to a prompt that asks them, “Think about how the railroad impacted Native Americans, their land, their communities, and their way of life.”

• In Unit 6, Week 3, Lesson 1, during Build Vocabulary/Preview the Text, students learn four vocabulary words using the Define/Example/Ask routine. They encounter these words as they read the text “Estrella and the Emerald Ring” by Alma Flor Ada. The teacher states, “Tell students that during independent time, they will encounter the Week 3 words again by reading the Vocabulary Practice Text on page 25 of the Texts for Close Reading and by completing vocabulary activities in their Build-Reflect-Write e-notebooks.” Some of these activities include answering vocabulary questions related to the Vocabulary Practice Text, answering questions connected to students’ experiences with the vocabulary words, playing a game, creating captions and labels with vocabulary words, and writing a poem with a vocabulary word.

Attention is paid to vocabulary essential to understanding the text and to high-value academic words (e.g., words that might appear in other contexts/content areas). 

• In each unit, the Vocabulary Development tab within Unit Resources illustrates the vocabulary terms students will cover. Materials note that the Build Knowledge Word Bank terms “are explicitly introduced in Mini-Lesson 1, practiced each week in Texts from Close Reading “Build Vocabulary” activities, and used orally and in writing as students construct the Knowledge Blueprint, discuss the Essential Question and Enduring Understandings, and complete-building tasks.” The General Academic and Domain-Specific words “appear in this unit’s Texts for Close Reading selections. Highlighted words are explicitly taught during First Reading mini-lessons each week. Students encounter these words again as they read the weekly Vocabulary Practice Texts.” Because explicit instruction focuses on the highlighted words, many of the General Academic and Domain-Specific words listed are not addressed.

• Each unit includes a Vocabulary Practice Text for each week. This short new text focuses on some of the vocabulary words from the anchor texts. Students read these texts independently and complete vocabulary tasks in their Build-Reflect-Write e-Notebooks. 

• In Unit 3, Week 1, students engage in a mini-lesson where they read “Solving Problems” by Lisa Benjamin. At the beginning of this mini-lesson, the teacher uses the Define/Example/Protocol to introduce two vocabulary words from the text: relief funds and crisis. The teacher defines a crisis as a “...major problem or dangerous situation.” Then, the teacher provides an example, “An electrical blackout is a crisis for any town or city.” Finally, the teacher asks students to turn and talk to their neighbor to answer the question, “What sort of thing would cause a crisis for a single person?” 

The materials reviewed for Grade 4 meet the expectations of Indicator 1n.

Grade 4 materials provide a consistent progression of phonics and word recognition lessons over the course of the year. The materials include a Scope and Sequence of phonics and word recognition skills and Phonics and Word Recognition Quick Checks that assess a range of phonics and word recognition skills. The materials indicate that the Quick Checks may be given at the beginning, middle, and end of the year or as needed to inform core instruction or intervention. Tasks and questions in the materials progress in a logical sequence that leads to the application of skills. Materials provide explicit instruction in grade-level phonics and word recognition skills and provide regular practice decoding multisyllabic words using a repeating Reading Big Words Strategy. Routines for decoding and building automaticity of reading multisyllabic words occur in each unit. Teachers use assessments to drive instruction and to help students make progress toward mastery. While all necessary assessment components are present, navigation of the multitude of related but separate assessment pieces is not streamlined. Teachers monitor students’ writing for phonics skills and provide additional instruction and practice, as needed.

Materials contain explicit instruction of irregularly spelled words, syllabication patterns, and word recognition consistently over the course of the year. For example:

• Use combined knowledge of all letter-sound correspondences, syllabication patterns, and morphology (e.g., roots and affixes) to read accurately unfamiliar multisyllabic words in context and out of context.

  • In Unit 8, Week 2, Phonics and Word Study Lesson 1, the teacher introduces the Greek and Latin Roots geo, archae, rupt. The teacher explains each root and writes six words on the board, asking students to sort the words into columns. The teacher provides students with a word study sheet with 50 words with the same roots, and students chorally read the words. The word study sheet contains an additional 50 words for additional practice. The materials indicate the teacher should transfer the skill while reading by “noticing and decoding words with the skill while reading.”

  • In Unit 8, Week 2, Lesson 8, students reread a text about volcanoes. The text includes the words erupted, eruption.

  • In Unit 9, Week 3, Lesson 2, the teacher models using the Reading Big Words Strategy to decode words with the variant vowel sound /âr/. Students read “Dust Dance” by Karen Hesse and chorally read lines 13-24. The teacher pauses and models decoding the phrase “tearing up.” Students read “Dust Storm Days” in the Word Study e-Book to gain fluency and automaticity with variant vowel /âr/ words. 

  • In Unit 10, Week 1, Lesson 5, the teacher displays words: running, restored, factories, classes, and models dividing each word into syllables to sound it out. The teacher models categorizing the words as double the final consonant, drop the silent e, change y to i, add -es. The teacher displays words and endings. Students work in partners to spell each word and sort into categories. The teacher and students chorally read “Power Restored in India” on page 5 of The Power of Electricity. The teacher points to the word consuming and models using knowledge of spelling patterns and context clues to decode, pronounce, and define the word.

All tasks and questions are sequenced to application of grade-level work (e.g., application of prefixes at the end of the unit/year; decoding multi-syllable words). For example: *Note: Look for the sequence of skills over the course of the year

• In the Scope and Sequence, materials outline the following sequence of phonics and word study skills: long and short vowels, syllable types, compound words, hard and soft g and c, r-controlled vowels, adverb suffixes, variant vowels, adjective suffixes, diphthongs, prefixes, homophones, Greek and Latin roots, noun suffixes, adding endings with spelling changes. For example:

  • In Scope and Sequence, Unit 2 introduces long vowel words, and Units 3 and 4 introduces open syllables and compound words.

  • In Scope and Sequence, Unit 6 introduces adverb and adjective suffixes and Units 8-10 introduces Greek and Latin Routes.

• In Unit 5, Week 1, My Word Study Book 1, students sound out and read words that contain multi-syllables. Examples include grasshopper, engine, and calcium. Each word is pronounced with the teacher, practiced independently, and timed reading with a partner.

• In Unit 8, Week 1, Lesson 1, students read and spell words with negative prefixes  (de, un-, in-, im-, and dis-). The skill is transferred to reading with the students decoding words while reading and revising writing using the spelling pattern.

Multiple assessment opportunities are provided over the course of the year to inform instructional adjustments of phonics, word recognition, and word analysis to help students make progress toward mastery. For example:

• In Assessments, Phonics and Word Recognition Quick Checks, materials include 116 Quick Check assessments. The materials contain a Quick Check to Intervention Resource Map that indicates which intervention lessons correspond to specific Quick Check skills. 

• In Grade 3-6 Phonics and Word Recognition Quick Checks, Quick Check 47, students read twelve words and draw a line to separate the words into syllables. 

• In Grade 3-6 Phonics and Word Recognition Quick Checks, Quick Check #49, students are shown a grid of words containing three words in each row for a total of 12 words. Students point to each word and read it aloud, then draw a line to divide the word into syllables: tickle, marble, uncle, settle, eagle, noble, ankle, bundle, needle, candle, temple, bottle.

• In Unit 5 Teacher’s Resource System, Intervention and Reteaching Resources, a guide indicates phonics and word recognition quick checks assessment results for hard and soft c, g and r-controlled vowels, correlate to re-teaching phonics and word recognition Lessons 6-9.

The materials reviewed for Grade 4 meet the expectations of Indicator 1o.

Grade 4 materials offer opportunities for students to apply grade-level phonics, word analysis, and word recognition skills. Materials include tasks and questions that provide opportunities for students to access different foundational skills within the anchor texts and supporting texts. The weekly lesson pattern includes independent practice using a word study text that contains words targeting the week’s phonics or word analysis skill. Phonics and word analysis lessons provide students an opportunity to apply the skill to the core text with teacher guidance. During recurring weekly phonics and word study lessons two and three, students engage in two readings of the week’s accountable text targeting newly-taught or reviewed skills. 

Multiple and varied opportunities are provided over the course of the year in core materials for students to learn, practice, and apply phonics, word analysis, and word recognition skills in connected tasks. For example:

• In Unit 5, Week 2, Phonics and Word Study Resource Book: Lesson 3, students practice decoding r-controlled vowels: ar, or, oar, ore in multiple ways. First students review spelling sound correspondences using the r-Controlled Vowels Chart. Students work in pairs to identify the r-controlled spelling and sounds in each word. Students complete a closed sort using category cards: ar, or, oar, ore and word cards: acorn, adore, barn, coarsely, export, galore, horse, market, oars, orbit, shark, stars, store, surfboard, uproar, word.

• In Unit 7, Week 1, Lesson 5, the teacher models dividing six words with /ou/ and /oi/ sounds into syllables and sounds them out. Students practice reading six additional words. Students read “The Golden Spike” e-book “to develop fluency and automaticity with words containing the sound /ou/ or /oi/. 

• In Unit 8, Week 2, Lesson 2, students independently read “The Mount Saint Helens Volcano” in the Word Study e-book to develop fluency and automaticity with words with Greek and Latin roots. The teacher reminds students to monitor their accuracy and comprehension.

Materials include tasks and questions that provide opportunities for students to access different foundational skills within the anchor text and supporting texts. For example:

• In Unit 1, Week 2, Lesson 2, after a lesson on long and short e syllables, students read the second paragraph of the core text, “Starting Off”, which contains the words near, need, register, before, outlet, begins, and reason. Students read the text chorally, and the teacher pauses to model decoding and determining the meaning of the word register. Students read the word study text “Waiting for Spring” independently to gain fluency and automaticity with words containing long and short e syllables.

• In Unit 3, Week 1, Lesson 5, students review open syllables and the Reading Big Words Strategy “Solving Problems” from pages 4-5 of Government in Action. The teacher models flexible use of syllable division using the words: human, humid, relabel, depended, tiger. The teacher guides students to use the Read Big Words Strategy to decode words: Caribbean, financial, inflation, hurricanes, agency. The teacher extends the learning throughout the week using lessons 1-5 in the Phonics and Word Study Resource Book. Students turn to page 4 and chorally read, the teacher pauses and models analysis of the word financial. Students apply understanding of open vowels in “Saving Yellowstone” in the Word Study e-book to develop fluency and automaticity with open syllable words.

• In Unit 7, Week 2, Lesson 2, the teacher models reading five words with the prefixes trans-, pro-, sub-, super-, inter-. Students practice reading, adding prefixes to words, and they discuss the meaning of the words. Students chorally read paragraph nine of the text, and the teacher points out the word transcontinental and models using knowledge of prefixes to sound out the word and determine its meaning. During independent work time, students read The Pony Express “to develop fluency and automaticity with words containing prefixes.”

The materials reviewed for Grade 4 meet the expectations of Indicator 1p.

Grade 4 materials include explicit instruction, modeling, and student practice in all areas of fluency. The materials include explicit instructional routines for rate, accuracy, and expression, including teacher modeling and student practice. Students engage in multiple readings of the core text and accountable texts each week. The materials support using context and decoding strategies to confirm understanding and word meaning. The materials indicate how to use quick checks to determine fluency. A resource map suggests Instructional adjustments to help students make progress toward mastery of fluency. The resource map references specific lessons to focus on reading with understanding, intonation, and expression. 

Multiple opportunities are provided over the course of the year in core materials for students to demonstrate sufficient accuracy and fluency in oral and silent reading. For example:

• Read grade-level text with purpose and understanding.

  • In Unit 5, Week 3, Phonics and Word Study, Lesson 2, the teacher guides students through a whisper read of the accountable text “Stargazers.” Students read the text chorally. The teacher asks students comprehension questions about the text. Students respond and underline words and phrases in the text to support their answers. 

  • In Unit 6, Week 1, Lesson 2, students practice reading a text focusing on changing inflection, intonation, pitch. During independent work time, students reread the text to note three connections to the text. 

  • In Unit 9, Week 1, Phonics and Word Study, Lesson 2, the teacher guides students through a whisper read of the accountable text “Take Action for Rainforests.” Students read the text chorally. The teacher asks students comprehension questions about the text. Students respond and underline words and phrases in the text to support their answers. 

Materials support reading of prose and poetry with attention to rate, accuracy, and expression, as well as direction for students to apply reading skills when productive struggle is necessary. For example:

• Read grade-level prose and poetry orally with accuracy, appropriate rate, and expression on successive readings.

  • In Unit 1, Additional Resources, Instructional Routines and Strategies, the materials provide instructional routines in areas of fluency: Inflection/Intonation - Pitch, Volume, Stress; Speed/Pacing - Slow, Varied, Fast; Dramatic Expression - Characterization/Feelings, Anticipation/Mood; Phrasing - Units of Meaning in Complex Sentences, Dependent Clauses; Confirm or Correct Word Recognition and Understanding; Short Pauses; Full Stops; High-Frequency Word Phrases. Each routine includes teacher modeling along with explicit instruction and student practice. 

  • In Unit 2, Week 2, Lesson 1, the teacher reminds students that fluent reading requires pausing at the end of sentences. The teacher uses the fluency routine to model reading the core text with pauses after sentences, and students practice. 

  • In Unit 4, Week 1, Lesson 2, the teacher indicates fluency includes reading with expression. The teacher uses a fluency routine and asks students to re-read the text with a partner during independent work time. 

  • In Unit 4, Week 5, Lesson 12, students reread to build fluency by reading a poem with a partner during independent time. Students may also listen to and read along with the audio-assisted ebook or listen to a recording. 

Materials support students’ fluency development of reading skills (e.g., self-correction of word recognition and/or for understanding, focus on rereading) over the course of the year (to get to the end of the grade-level band). For example:

• Use context to confirm or self-correct word recognition and understanding, rereading as necessary.

  • In Unit 5, Week 1, Lesson 10, the teacher reminds students that fluent readers monitor their comprehension as they read. If they come to a passage they don’t understand, they should reread a sentence or paragraph out loud to support comprehension. The teacher rereads paragraph 2 from “Robots Will Take Professional Jobs” in Technology for Tomorrow and models using the Read Out Loud to Support Comprehension Fix-Up Strategy.

  • In Instructional Routines, Fluency Routines, the teacher uses a routine to guide students to read words correctly and make “sure that the words they read make sense in context.” The routine includes the teacher modeling how to confirm the meaning of a word, students choral-reading the same section, and students rereading the text while paying “attention to word parts.”

Assessment materials provide teachers and students with information of students’ current fluency skills and provide teachers with instructional adjustments to help students make progress toward mastery of fluency. For example:

• In Unit 7, Week 1, Lesson 5, the materials indicate “you may also wish to have students complete” Quick Checks 35 or 36 and 37 or 38. 

• In Assessments, Fluency Quick Checks, the materials include ten Grade 4 assessment passages that can be used to assess oral reading accuracy, reading rate, and fluency (phrasing, intonation, and expression). The passages are identified by Lexile, and students read passages at their instructional reading level. For example:

  • In Fluency Quick Check #36, Climates in the United States, students complete a fluency quick check with the teacher on how many words read per line. To determine fluency mastery, students are assessed on oral reading accuracy, reading rate (words per minute), and comprehension.

  • In Fluency Quick Check #37, The Beach, students complete a fluency quick check with the teacher on how many words read per line. To determine fluency mastery, students are assessed on oral reading accuracy, reading rate (words per minute), and comprehension.

• In Assessments, Fluency, the Fluency Quick Check Resource Map provides a map of fluency intervention lessons that match each fluency skill and quick check. The directions for assessment outline how to assess each skill and determine whether a student needs intervention lessons. 

• In Assessments, Fluency Quick Checks, the Additional Teacher Resources section contains alternate fluency assessments, including fluency rubrics, fluency self-assessments, reader’s theater self-assessments, performance assessments, and oral presentation assessments.