3rd Grade - Gateway 2

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 3 meet the criteria that materials contain sets of coherently sequenced questions and tasks that require students to analyze the language, key ideas, details, craft, and structure of individual texts.

Throughout the lessons, students work independently and collaboratively to complete questions and tasks requiring analysis of individual texts. Lessons in ELA and Shared Reading include close reads with sequenced and scaffolded questions. Key ideas are targeted through specific questions and are designed to guide the thinking process toward precise, accurate details to help students identify main ideas, settings, characters, and chronological events. Students are also required to use inferencing skills, determine the meaning of unfamiliar vocabulary in the text, and complete writing tasks with analysis of the message or lesson in a story.

Examples include:

• In Week 5, Shared Reading, Days 1-5, students read the non-fiction text The Constitution of the United States, by Christine Taylor-Butler. Students analyze the text through a series of questions including, “Why does the author put some words in bold print? Why do you think the delegates founded a weak government at first? Why did the author choose this title for the chapter? What does it mean to say ‘I smell a rat!’? Does the author mean that literally?”
• In Week 15, Shared Reading, Days 1-5, students read the text And Then What Happened, Paul Revere? by Jean Fritz. Students are asked a series of questions about the ideas and details in the text including, “Why was Boston such a busy place? How was Paul’s early life unusual? Why was the French and Indian War so boring for Paul?” Students are also prompted to use text features to aid in understanding, “Why is the illustration on page 31 important? What did it mean on page 35 when the author put Paul in italics? Explain the illustration on page 39.”
• In Week 24, ELA Lesson, Days 1-5, students read the non-fiction text Twisters and Other Terrible Storms by Will Osborne and Mary Pope Osborne, paired with a Magic Tree House story. Students analyze the text through a series of questions including, “Why did the authors provide us the section on weather tools? Why do you think the authors told us about cumulonimbus clouds last? Why did the authors have to teach us about the atmosphere, wind, pressures, and thunderstorms before teaching us about tornadoes?”

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 3 meet the criteria that materials include a cohesive, year-long plan for students to interact with and build key academic vocabulary words in and across texts.

Shared Reading lessons include a Word Study segment, designed to bring attention to the spelling and word meaning of vocabulary words. Students also engage in explicit vocabulary instruction during Shared Reading, through word meaning, multiple meanings, and super sentences. Words selected for this part of the lesson come from the day’s text, and are displayed and introduced prior to reading. Most of the words selected have multiple meanings, and the Shared Reading lesson builds awareness of how context constraints these meanings. Following explicit instruction, students read the words in context and write sentences using the words. Students use semantic webs to plan compound or complex super sentences. ELA Lesson plans incorporate vocabulary instruction primarily in the Model a Comprehension Strategy and Ask Questions During Reading segments of the lesson. Appendix D in the Teacher’s Manual includes an overview of vocabulary words chosen for each week. Although the vocabulary routines are explicit and consistent throughout the year, the routines do not vary or increase in the rigor of application required by the student.

• Shared Reading daily vocabulary routine includes, “Teach Meaning Vocabulary,” which is direct instruction for one or two vocabulary words, and “Assign Written Response,” which requires students to create a super sentence for the two words. Sometimes the super sentence includes the additional task of incorporating a reading comprehension strategy. For example:
• Week 3, Shared Reading, Day 5, after reading Fudge-a-Mania by Judy Blume,  during Teach Meaning Vocabulary the teacher provides direct instruction about the word “misunderstandings.” During the Assigned Written Response, students are asked to write a Super Sentence to identify any one of the misunderstandings from the chapters of the text.
• ELA lesson incorporates vocabulary instruction into Interactive Reading during the “Model a Comprehension Strategy” and “Ask Questions During Reading” segments. The words are pulled for their relevance to teaching the text. For example:
• Week 15, ELA Lesson, Days 1-5, students read Maps and Globes by Jack Knowlton. The lesson begins with “Introduce Book and Preview Technical Vocabulary.” The teacher shows a “Concept of Definition” diagram about maps, creates a semantic map and adds to the map during discussion. Day 1, students learn the word scale. Day 3, students learn about prime meridian, latitude, equator, elevation, and contour lines. Day 4, students learn the difference between a political map and a physical map. Day 5, students learn the term legend.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 3 meet the criteria that materials support students’ increasing writing skills over the course of the school year, building students’ writing ability to demonstrate proficiency at grade level at the end of the school year.

Students are supported through the writing process, and various activities are placed throughout lessons to ensure students’ writing skills are increasing throughout the year. Students are encouraged to develop writing stamina by writing frequently and for various purposes. Students engage in reading and discussion of mentor texts similar to those they are planning to write, and they examine and identify a range of text structures. They are guided to assess the effectiveness of their own and others’ writing. Students are instructed on the nuances of the different types of writing during the ELA Lessons, using checklists and rubrics. During Shared Reading, students write in response to reading with question prompts in opinion, narrative, and informative genres. The “Writing” Appendix in the Teacher Manual explains the design of writing instruction, stating it is intentionally “structurally repetitive.” Students engage in the same sequence with different content throughout the year as follows:

• Learn the characteristics of the genre
• Evaluate good and poor examples of the genre
• Learn to plan the genre
• Learn to draft the genre
• Learn to revise, both with peers and independently

For example:

Opinion Writing

• In Week 2, ELA Lesson, Days 1-5, after completing an independent writing assessment on Day 1 by writing a book review, students engage in initial opinion writing instruction for the year. Days 2-5 the teacher introduces opinion writing by engaging students in a discussion about the important parts of a book review and listing the parts of an opinion. As a whole group, the students read sample texts and examine the parts to determine if they meet the criteria for opinion writing, and in partners work to compare texts using a checklist to determine which ones have stronger opinions. On Days 4 and 5, the teacher models using the checklist and a graphic organizer to draft and write an opinion writing book review.
• In Weeks 11-12, ELA Lesson, students revisit opinion writing and work together as a class to write a book review. Then students choose an independent reading book, The Keeping Quilt, or Grandfather’s Journey, and use the opinion writing checklist and graphic organizer from Week 2 to write their own book review. Students are introduced to the additional stages of the writing process as they learn to revise, edit, and publish their book reviews.
• In Week 33, ELA Lesson, Days 1-5, students create an advertisement for a book they read during the year, using all the opinion writing instruction from the year (checklist, graphic organizer, transition words and phrases, editing, and revising). Students are reminded to focus on persuading the audience.

Narrative Writing

• In Week 1, ELA Lesson, Days 2-5, the teacher introduces narrative writing with an interactive game and models the narrative structure by telling a story and using an anchor chart to teach the elements of setting, problem, solution, sequence, dialogue to signal order, and closure. Students are asked to recognize these elements in the story. Students then read the narrative text, 2 Futuristic Cars as the teacher guides students in recognizing the elements. The teacher introduces the narrative checklist and models the graphic organizer to plan, and students write their own short narrative.
• In Week 14, ELA Lesson, the teacher reviews the beginning lesson on narratives writing and students learn there are different types of narrative writing. Students learn to craft a story ending from the details shaping the story. The teacher uses the narrative checklist and graphic organizer to model writing a reasonable ending to match the story. Students read additional stories to improve their understanding of the elements of narrative text. Students use the instruction to spend two days writing their own fictional narratives.
• In Week 29, ELA Lesson, the teacher uses the text, Pinduli by Janell Cannon to show how the author uses character types to create the plot with trickery. Students use the checklist and graphic organizer to write their own narratives with the same characters but creating a different plot and events.

Informative Writing

• In Week 4, ELA Lesson, Days 3-5, students begin learning about informative writing by looking at example texts. Students analyze texts to determine whether or not they are informative.
• In Weeks 9-10 ELA Lesson, after reading the text Soil by Christian Ditchfield and teacher modeling of the graphic organizer and color-coded sticky notes, students use their notes to create a summary of the book Soil.
• In Weeks 22-23, ELA Lesson, after review of the elements of a biography, the teacher models the use of a graphic organizer to plan and draft a biography. Students write their own and present them to peers for feedback.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 3 meet the criteria that materials provide a design, including accountability, for how students will regularly engage in a volume of independent reading either in or outside of class.

Independent reading within the daily lessons is most often represented by re-reading text from instruction during Shared Reading. During the Differentiated Instruction block, self-selected reading is a task students can choose to complete after they have finished other tasks such as word work, text-based responses, and work with the teacher. 

In the Teacher Manual, in the Differentiated Instruction section, there is a section titled “Self-Selected Reading”. This section explains that Bookworms was designed to maximize authentic, connected reading and writing every day and states, “For teachers who want to hold students accountable for their choices, we recommend a Book Recommendation Board.” The Teacher Manual also explains that Bookworms does not recommend restricting students’ book choices based on level and that students should be able to self-select books of interest from classroom libraries.

The Differentiated Instruction portion of the ELA block does not have specific daily lessons for the teachers to use. The Teacher Manual provides a reference to books used for curriculum development and brief overviews of parts of differentiated instruction.