2nd Grade - Gateway 3

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 2 meet the criteria that materials are well-designed and take into account effective lesson structure and pacing.

The lessons and pacing throughout the program are both academically and developmentally appropriate. Students are given multiple opportunities to engage with a text, discuss with peers and teachers, learn new vocabulary words, and improve their writing. Opportunities for reteaching are also included. In the program, there are three 45-minute blocks of instruction. One block is used for whole-class shared reading. Students spend 5-10 minutes of word study or sharing written response from the previous day before beginning 25-30 minutes of shared reading which includes vocabulary instruction, setting a purpose for reading, choral or echo reading, and revisiting the purpose. The final 10 minutes of the block involves a comprehension discussion, updating the anchor chart, or assigning written response prompts. The second block is used for English Language Arts instruction, where students either engage in an interactive read-aloud or process writing. During interactive read-alouds, students work on summarizing, updating the anchor chart, sentence composing, and/or written response. During process writing, there is direct instruction, followed by work time, and time to share. The third block is used for differentiated instruction to develop foundational skills based on data. The program allows for three groups to meet with the teacher for 15 minutes a day, while engaging in word study, written responses, or self-selected independent reading.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 2 meet, partially meet, do not meet) the criteria that the teacher and student can reasonably complete the content within a regular school year, and the pacing allows for maximum student understanding.

The Bookworms materials for both Shared Reading and English Language Arts is broken into 36 weeks and five lessons a week, which equals exactly 180 days. In addition, because the differentiated period can be used for reteaching, review, extension work, and additional exposure to print through independent reading time, the pacing allows for maximum student understanding. While this material covers the entire course of a typical school year, it is important to note that if schools have interruptions to a typical learning day or do not start the lessons on day 1 of school, then teachers will not finish the entire program.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 2 meet the criteria that the student resources include ample review and practice resources, clear directions, and explanation, and correct labeling of reference aids (eg. visuals, maps, etc.).

The student resources included in the program include clear directions and explanations and correct labeling of reference aids. However, it is important to note that there are very few student resources included because schools need to purchase the texts separately. The materials that are available include graphic organizers, descriptive writing, narrative, book review, opinion and editing checklists, book review text(s), and book review checklists. Not all of the downloads have a set of directions, but they are easy to interpret, well-labeled, and explained in the lesson plans on how to use. Student workbooks are also included for foundational skills. These include the labeling of text titles and days of the week.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 2 meet the criteria that materials include publisher-produced alignment documentation of the standards addressed by specific questions, tasks, and assessment items.

The publisher provides Common Core Standards alignment tables that are organized by Shared Reading and English Language Arts lessons by week. There is also a standards alignment document for Word Study and Shared Reading written responses. Furthermore, standards alignment is included for the Fluency Measure and Informal Decoding Inventory found in Unit 1, the Holistic Assessment found in Unit 2, and the Oral Reading Fluency Measure found in Unit 3 and 4. In addition, in each lesson plan, each portion of the lesson identifies the related standards alignment.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 2 meet the criteria that materials contain a teacher’s edition with ample and useful annotations and suggestions on how to present the content in the student edition and in the ancillary materials. Where applicable, materials include teacher guidance for the use of embedded technology to support and enhance student learning.

The materials contain a Teacher Manual for each grade level that provides information on the rationale behind each instructional method, the purpose of the design of the curriculum, and a breakdown of each lesson in English Language Arts, Shared Reading, and Differentiated Instruction. Lessons are written in first person. The design of the program is intentionally structured with repetitive routines to make it easier to use in real time, according to the publisher.  The daily lesson plans include information on the Common Core State Standards being addressed, the texts being used, and plannings notes that offer suggestions on how to use additional resources to enhance lessons. For example:

• In Week 17 of ELA, after reading Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, teachers have the option of showing the movie or YouTube clips. Each lesson provides a script for the teacher to follow in order to lead students in their learning. In addition, there is guidance on which sections to review, how to design charts and model responses.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 2 meet the criteria that materials contain explanations of the instructional approaches of the program and identification of the research based strategies.

The materials include a Teacher Manual that breaks down the Literacy block into Shared Reading, English Language Arts, and Differentiated Instruction. Within each section, there are explicit explanations and guidance for each method that is mentioned, ranging from word study, fluency, comprehension, writing, and vocabulary. The Teacher Manual explains the process involved for every section and often details why approach was included in the program. The identification of research-based strategies are present, and books and articles are referred to for teachers to learn more about the specific approaches and strategies.

Some specific explanations and research-based practices include:

• The Teacher Manual states why they chose a specific writing prompt. It states that the prompt is the most important kind of writing students will do, is closely tied to the comprehension strategies of determining the relative importance of ideas, and provides a sharing activity that sets up the new days’ text segment by reviewing recent events.
• The Teacher Manual states that the goal for the fluency portion of the Shared Reading routine is to build the skills for students to move from a teacher-supported choral reading to an independent partner reading.
• For vocabulary, the Teacher Manual explains that while there are many evidence-based routines for vocabulary instruction, they have chosen just a few to make sure teachers and students are accustomed to the routines.
• The Teacher Manual encourages teachers to engage in a Semantic Feature Analysis in Shared Reading and in interactive read-alouds, whenever new concepts are a part of a larger overarching category, and can be compared and contrasted on the basis of a set of features.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 2 meet the criteria that materials regularly and systematically offer assessment opportunities that genuinely measure student progress.

The Grade 2 materials include weekly Word Study tests, bi-weekly on-demand written responses to assess comprehension, and longer fully processed writing tasks to assess composition and mechanics. Standards-based rubrics are included to assess these compositions.

The Teacher Manual also states that there are fluency assessments available with clear interpretive guidance for free or low cost. The Bookworms K-5 Reading and Writing diagnostic assessment for phonics knowledge as been provided free by the publisher in Appendix F.

In addition, Bookworms recommends assessing student progress in external transfer tasks using periodic holistic assessments, though these assessments are not included within the Bookworms curriculum. For example, it recommends two specific Achieve the Core, Grade 2 writing performance assessments.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 2 meet the criteria that assessments clearly denote which standards are being emphasized.

The evaluation enhancements section of the Bookworms Curriculum, "Evaluating Student Progress", includes a summary of all Grade 2 assessment opportunities within each unit as well as the standard alignment. The assessments are in decoding, fluency, genre writing, and shared reading.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 2 meet the criteria that materials should include routines and guidance that point out opportunities to monitor student progress.

Within the program, the publisher includes an "Evaluating Student Progress" document consisting of a summary of all Grade 2 assessment opportunities within each unit, along with each assessment’s standards alignment. This is a separate document though, and not in the Teacher Manual. Within the Word Study and Shared Reading lesson plans, assessment opportunities are indicated with a green box in the Teacher Manual to highlight the opportunity for assessment. Genre writing assessments are not highlighted in the same manner, and teachers need to refer to this separate document.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 2 meet the criteria that materials provide teachers with strategies for meeting the needs of range of learners so the content is accessible to all learners and supports them in meeting or exceeding the grade-level standards.

In the program, one of the three blocks of instruction is the Differentiation block that offers instruction to different small groups of learners. This time allows the teacher to instruct and monitor students to ensure they are understanding the content, while offering opportunities for reteaching, practice, review, and other scaffolding techniques, based on the students’ need.

The program does not create small group instruction based on reading levels, but instead uses diagnostic data to place students in groups, which is outlined in the book How to Plan Differentiated Reading Instruction (sold separately). This Tier II instruction is designed to target skill deficits. In addition, the publisher reports that there is an opportunity for more intensive instruction during this block if students need it, which prevents them from missing Shared Reading and English Language Arts instruction. Each of the groups engage in three-week or six-week cycles, with progress-monitoring assessments used to help teachers know when to reteach the lessons, move to the next set of lessons, or regroup students. When students are not working with the teacher during this time, they are engaged in a written response from Shared Reading or engaged in self-selected reading.

In addition, differentiation is recommended for in-class and push-in supports during Shared Reading and English Language Arts instruction. Some examples of in-class supports include allowing students to track print rather than read it and engaging in choral reading instead of partner reading, using sentence frames for students who struggle to complete sentence, and allowing less details in a sentence. Examples of push-in support include conducting parallel discussions in order to allow more students to participate and receive scaffolding, and allowing the use of dictation or assistive technology for students with disabilities.

Differentiation is provided for both weak readers and strong readers. For weaker readers, it is recommended that teachers provide oral sentence frames. For weaker writers, students should be giving graphic organizers and monitoring should be provided. It is recommended that high-achieving students are paired together so they can challenge each other’s comprehension or students do not have to participate in partner reading, and can read independently instead.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 2 meet the criteria that materials regularly provide all students, including those who read, write, speak, or listen below grade level, or in a language other than English, with extensive opportunities to work with grade level text and meet or exceed grade-level standards.

The Teacher Manual has a section that addresses English Language Learners. It provides a routine with built-in supports for English Language Learners in a traditional classroom setting, and they also identify additional supports that could be added to a classroom for more assistance in accessing the curriculum. In addition, the Differentiation section provides different levels of scaffolding that an English Language Learner may need, and it offers recommendations depending on the specific needs of the students. It is recommended that English Language Learners always meet with the teacher for 15 minutes a day during this block of time. The Teacher Manual also gives suggestions such as replacing English Language Arts if students require more intensive speaking and listening instruction in English.

Some examples of built-in English Language Learner supports include:

• Words are presented with their syllables physically identified and then transformed into different parts of speech by adding prefixes, suffixes, and inflectional endings
• Using pictures to support meaning
• Using super sentence webs to use vocabulary words in sentence contexts

Some examples of additional supports include:

• Listening and tracking print rather than reading chorally
• Displaying a set of sentence starts that students can use
• Adding sentence frames to support answers to text-based writing

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 2 meet  the criteria that materials regularly include extensions and/or more advanced opportunities for students who read, write, speak, or listen above grade level.

Bookworms provides extension tasks, scaffolding, and explicit instruction for teachers on how to teach their above grade level students. Bookworms identifies the need for teachers to identify the strengths of the strong students and to scaffold their learning so that the content is meaningful and engaging. During the Differentiation block, all students receive differentiated content based on the assessment data collected throughout the year. Additionally, Bookworms provides a chart for teachers of ways to add more advanced opportunities in Shared Reading and English Language Arts.

Specific opportunities for extensions for above grade level students include:

• Silently reading instead of participating in choral reading
• Working with another high-achieving student to have a discussion about the text
• Asking the student to help with the whole class summary of the text
• Being given a specific sentence frame, instead of giving them a choice for vocabulary development