2nd Grade - Gateway 2

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 2 meet the expectation that texts are organized around a topic/topics to build students knowledge and vocabulary which will over time support and help grow students’ ability to comprehend complex texts independently and proficiently.

According to the Bookworms Teacher's Manual for Grade 2, “Our goal is for all children to build their fluency, comprehension and vocabulary skills, to encounter meaningful texts, and to leave second grade ready to read third-grade texts fluently and with strong comprehension.” In the Teacher’s Manual on page 5 it states, “We thought about content, especially whether the content in fiction included access to a variety of families, which may include socioeconomics, ELL, home support etc, and a potential to build knowledge. For nonfiction, we also thought about content that was likely taught in science and social studies and for which we could build background knowledge."

The First Nine Weeks unit for Shared Reading is divided into two topics.

• The First Four Weeks are spent on a narrative unit about friendship which includes titles such as Arthur’s Back to School Day (Hoban), Henry and Mudge: The First Book (Rylant), Pinky and Rex (Howe), Ivy and Bean (Barrows).
• The Second Four Weeks are on an informational text unit about cycles which include: Tale of a Tadpole (Wallace), From Tadpole to Frog (Pfeffer), From Caterpillar to Butterfly (Legg), The Journey of a Butterfly (Scrace).

The First Two Weeks of the Second Nine Weeks of the shared reading unit focuses on a type of realistic fiction called mystery and includes titles such as, A-Z Mysteries, The Kidnapped King (Ron Roy), Cam Jansen and the Mystery Writer Mystery (Adler). The next three weeks of the Shared Reading unit focuses on Native Americans and uses the following titles: The Very First Americans (Ashrose), The Pueblo Indians (Ross), If You Lived with the Cherokee(Roop).

The Third Nine Weeks of the Shared Reading unit focuses on humor and biographies and includes the titles such as: Practice Makes Perfect for Rotten Ralph (Gantos), Judy Moody Saves the World (McDonald), Jackie Robinson (Walker), Abraham Lincoln: The Great Emancipator (Stevenson).

The Fourth Nine Weeks of the Shared Reading unit focuses on genres such as mystery, adventure and fantasy utilizing chapter book titles such as, Mummies (Milton), Mystery of the Mummy’s Curse (Warner), Magic Tree House: Day of the Dragon King (Osborne), Time Warp Trio: It’s All Greek to Me (Scieszka).

According to the Bookworms materials, “While the shared reading text order should be maintained to allow for the word study scope and sequence to stay intact, the Interactive Read-Alouds are arranged around Lexile levels rather than topics, and gives flexibility for teachers to alter the order which allows for titles to be reorganized to fit within the shared reading topics.” For example during the Shared Reading unit that focuses on Native Americans the teacher may use the following interactive reading texts: Arrow to the Sun (McDermott) 480L, Starry Messenger (Sis) 830L 3 and The Rough-Face Girl (Martin).

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 2 meet the expectations materials contain sets of coherently sequenced questions and tasks that require students to analyze the language (words/phrases), key ideas, details, craft, and structure of individual texts in order to make meaning and build understanding of texts and topics.

Analysis of Language

On page 24 of the Teacher’s Manual, it states, “In Shared Reading, the words that are selected for instruction are connected to the meaning and theme of the text to be read that day. You will see that we include information about the part of speech and often about transformations into different parts of speech. It may be helpful to display the new word and its definition on the board each day. You will see that students will have to use the word in super sentences, so it is important that they can see it. Also consider creating a vocabulary board, with the title of the book or a picture of its cover and all words introduced. Review and use the words as often as possible.”

• For example, during the First Nine Weeks, Week 4, Day 16, the text is Ivy and Bean, which is part of the friendship theme, the teacher states, “ The characters we have met so far have relationships. Relationships is a noun that means connections. These characters are friends – that’s their relationship. There are other kinds of relationships, too. Classmates have a relationship. Family members have a relationship. You can have relationships that are good (like with your friends) and also bad ones (with people whom you don’t like).”
• During an informational theme in Week 5 ,Day 21, the text is In Tale of a Tadpole, the teacher provides the definition. “An amphibian is a type of animal. Characteristics: Amphibians lay a special kind of egg without a hard shell; amphibians have four legs and are cold blooded. Non-examples: Snakes are animals, but they are not amphibians because they don’t have four legs. Cows are animals, but they are not amphibians because they don’t lay eggs. Frogs, toads, and salamanders are amphibians. We are going to learn about how frogs grow from their eggs. Frogs are one type of amphibian. (Show frog on cover).”

On page 26 of the Teacher’s Manual, it states, “If there are words in the text that students do not understand, explain them during echo or choral reading. As you move from one page to the next, you can stop briefly to provide an explanation.”

Using the quick scaffolding protocol described on page 33 of the teacher’s manual, the teacher explains difficult or unfamiliar vocabulary.

• For example, during the interactive read aloud Alexander Who Used to be Rich Last Sunday in the First Nine Weeks, while reading the teacher states, “Bus tokens look like coins but you can only use them to ride the bus.” or during the Second Nine Weeks while reading Arrow to the Sun, the teacher states, “A kiva is a special underground room.”

On page 27 of the Teacher’s Manual, information concerning text structure is referenced. “For narratives, you will see that we prompt you to keep on ongoing story map filled in after the day’s discussion. You can always use that map to review the story as necessary. For nonfiction, the text structure focus is more varied. Again, display a chart paper version so that students can review.” “As with vocabulary, our approach to text structure differs depending on whether the book is fiction or nonfiction. In the case of fiction, the format is almost invariably narrative so that previewing it in advance is unnecessary. In the case of an information book, however, an author may employ a number of organization patterns. We have included suggestions for previewing how the text of a particular information book is structured. Providing this knowledge in advance is likely to improve comprehension (e.g., Alvermann & Swafford, 1989). Just as important, continually exposing students to how nonfiction texts are structured will provide them with frameworks they can use in their own writing.” Some examples of text structure include:

• During the third week of the First Nine Weeks Shared Reading unit, students read Pinky and Rex and create a story map. On Day 1 the focus is characters and setting, Day 2 focuses on the problem, Day 3 students add events after the problem, and Day 4 is the resolution.
• During the fourth week of the Third Nine Weeks Shared Reading unit, students read Jackie Robinson and focus on timelines. The teacher utilizes the following script, “Remember that a biography is generally structured as a sequence of events. Create an ongoing timeline of the most salient events in Robinson’s life – this biography is not very detailed, but it gives a sense that biographies go in order.”
• In the Fourth Nine Weeks of the Shared Reading unit in week 1, students read Mummies and the teacher provides the following focus on text structure, “ Let’s think about the main topic of this book. Here’s a hint – it’s the same as the title! We can start a diagram to help us remember how Joyce Milton organized the facts in this book. I’ll write the main topic in the center. What’s the subtopic we’ve just read about? [Prompt reasons for mummies.]”

The instructional materials for Grade 2 meet expectations that materials contain a coherently sequenced set of text-based questions and tasks that require students to build knowledge and integrate ideas across both individual and multiple texts.

During the First Nine Weeks of the Shared Reading unit, students study the themes of friendship using fictional text and later explore the nonfiction theme of life cycles. Throughout these themes, students are required to utilize prior knowledge to build and integrate ideas across both individual and multiple texts. For example, during the first week, students read Arthur’s Back to School Day. Each day, the teacher reviews the learning from the previous day and builds upon that learning to increase understanding. On Day 1, the teacher states, ” Remember that stories have parts. If you know the parts, it is easier to remember the story. Today we got some information about the setting and the characters. The setting is the place and time where the story happens. The characters are people or animals in the story. Let’s summarize what we know so far on our story map.” On Day 2, the teacher states, “Yesterday we learned about the setting and the characters in this story. Today we learned about the problem. The problem in a story is often some kind of complication. Let’s add to our map. On days 3 & 4 students map the events after the problem and on day 5 they add the resolution. Some text-based questions the teacher asks to assist students in completing the following tasks are; Now focus on the characters. What do we know about each one? What did the characters do to prepare for school? What exactly happened to make the day complicated?”

During the Fourth Nine Weeks of the Shared Reading unit, students read an informational book called Mummies. Throughout the week, students utilize a diagram to assist them in learning how this genre is organized. For example, during the first week, the teacher states, "Let’s think about the main topic of this book. Here’s a hint – it’s the same as the title! We can start a diagram to help us remember how Joyce Milton organized the facts in this book. I’ll write the main topic in the center. What’s the subtopic we’ve just read about? [Prompt reasons for mummies.]” On Day 2, "Yesterday we found out that the first subtopic was why mummies were made. What is today’s subtopic?" Day 3, "What subtopic can we add for today? [Prompt mummies after the pyramids.]" And on Day 4, "Think about what we learned in the last part of the book. What can we call the subtopic? [Prompt what happened to the mummies. Review the entire topic-subtopic diagram.]"

Examples of students building knowledge and integrating ideas across both individual and multiple texts include but are not limited to:

• In the second week of the First Nine Weeks unit, students read Henry and Mudge. The teacher makes connections between the stories to introduce character traits by stating, “Both the Arthur stories and the Henry and Mudge stories are fictional. That means that they are not real. When authors write stories, they have to create characters. Great characters, like Henry and Mudge, have traits. Character traits are words that you can use to describe a character. They are things you can see in the illustrations (like red hair, or a long tail) and they are also things that you have to figure out. Characters might be brave or lonely or helpful. When we understand a book well, we can describe the traits of the characters.” Students are then asked to create a list of character traits. Some text-based questions used during this text study include; Why was Henry lonely? Why did Henry’s mother and father decide to get Henry a dog?
• During the third week of the First Nine Weeks Shared Reading unit, the teacher integrates the idea of friendship across multiple texts by stating, “The characters we have met so far have relationships. Relationships is a noun that means connections. These characters are friends – that’s their relationship. There are other kinds of relationships, too. Classmates have a relationship. Family members have a relationship. You can have relationships that are good (like with your friends) and also bad ones (with people whom you don’t like). While reading Pinky and Rex, the teacher poses the following text-based questions: "Which character was jealous? Why? Which character did something to impress another character? Did it work? What did it mean when the author told us that Pinky had a new favorite shirt? Why did Amanda want help picking out her clothes? Why didn’t Pinky help her?"
• During the theme study of life cycles, students focus on tadpoles in Tale of a Tadpole and move onto the study of frogs in From Tadpole to Frog. Students are asked to synthesize information learned from the two texts. For example, “We did learn a lot about frogs last week, but this book has new information. Think about how these two books are different. In addition we’ve read two books about the frogs, and the authors used different organizational plans. Let’s compare our timeline with the cycle map from the last book. Which do you like better? What are your reasons? Why is it helpful to read more than one book on the same topic?”

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 2 meet the expectations that materials include a cohesive, year-long plan for students to interact and build key academic vocabulary words in and across texts.

In the Teacher’s Manual on page 32, it states, “Our approaches to vocabulary are the same as those we have championed for differentiated reading instruction (Walpole &; McKenna, 2009; Walpole, McKenna, & Philippakos, 2011). We adhere to a few basic approaches of established effectiveness, and these approaches are different for fiction and information books." The Manual also states, "For fiction, we recommend neither pretesting nor preteaching words in advance. Pretesting wastes valuable time given the fact that students can be expected to benefit from attention to words even if they already possess a working knowledge of their meanings. For fiction, we have chosen Tier 2 words (Beck, McKeown, & Kucan, 2013), which are general in nature and which students will need to know as they move forward in school. Beck and her colleagues point out that the problem with preteaching such words is the danger that they can distract students when the teacher mentions them during the read-aloud. Accordingly, we have placed them near the end of each session. We have incorporated the teacher language they recommend for introducing Tier 2 words.”

• In the Third Nine Weeks of the Shared Reading unit, in Week 1, Day 1 students read Practice Makes Perfect for Rotten Ralph. The teacher states, "Look for words that you want to talk about. Our author is using some lovely words here.Think about the characters so far. Remember that characters have traits. Look back and decide what words you would use to describe Ralph, Percy, and Sarah."
• In the Third Nine Weeks of the Interactive Read-Aloud unit, in Week 16, Day 3 student hear the text, Tornado. The teacher states, "Another word from our book is commanded. What word? Command means to tell someone to do something and not give them a choice about it. In the army, a general sometimes commands soldiers to do something. That means they must do it. When Tornado won’t drop the card, Pete’s father raises his voice. “‘Tornado, drop it!’ my daddy commanded.” And Tornado did drop the card. Another word for command is order. A little later, Pete’s dad talks to the dog again. “‘Drop it!’ my daddy ordered.” These words can mean the same thing. Command and order can mean to tell someone to do something and not give them a choice about it. What word?"

The Teacher's Manual states, “For information books, on the contrary, it is important to preview key vocabulary either just prior to the read-aloud or at the point the words are encountered during the read-aloud. Previewing does not mean teaching the words to mastery. It amounts to an introduction, a method of exposing children to their meanings and how they are related. We rely on a small number of effective instructional strategies for introducing disciplinary words, including concept of definition, semantic feature analysis, and other graphic approaches. It will not take long for children to become accustomed to how these approaches work.”

The First Nine Weeks shared reading unit focuses on the topic of life cycles. It includes titles such as; Tale of a Tadpole, From Tadpole to Frog, From Caterpillar to Butterfly, and The Journey of a Butterfly. Students are introduced to life cycles beginning with the tadpole which then progresses to frogs. The information and vocabulary learned in these two texts are then connected to the life cycle of a butterfly.

In the First Nine Weeks Shared Reading unit, in Week 7, Day 31 students read the text From Caterpillar to Butterfly. The teacher states, "Our book today has a table of contents to help us to know how the author has organized information. The information is about the life cycle of a butterfly. We learned about the life cycle of frogs. Remember that a cycle is a sequence of events that repeats. We will use the same cycle map to keep track of facts and information about butterflies. Look at the illustrations on the bottom of page 27. They show the life cycle of the butterfly. Think about how a butterfly life cycle is similar to a frog life cycle." In Week ,7 Day 35 students answer, "We’ve read about two life cycles now. How is the life cycle of a butterfly similar to the life cycle of a frog? How is it different? Let’s compare and contrast them. Compare means to say how they are alike. Contrast means to say how they are different."

During the Second Nine Weeks Interactive Read-Aloud unit while reading Arrow to the Sun, on Day 2, the teacher utilizes knowledge from another unit of study to discuss the vocabulary word transformed. For example, "Another word from our story is transformed. What word? Transformed means to be changed from one thing into another. A caterpillar is transformed into a butterfly. In our book, something like that happened to the boy. It says, “When the Boy came out of the Kiva of Lightning, he was transformed.” Transformed means to be changed from one thing into another. What word?"