1st Grade - Gateway 2

The instructional materials reviewed for Center for Collaborative Classroom Grade 1 partially meet the criteria 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.

Within the units of Making Meaning the instructional materials are organized around literary and informational texts and the teaching of reading comprehension strategies. Texts are not consistently organized by topic and students have limited opportunities to build knowledge and vocabulary about topics consistently. Examples include but are not limited to:

• In Unit 1, the title of the unit is The Reading Community: Fiction and Narrative Nonfiction. Students listen to Quick as a Cricket by Audrey Wood, When I was Little: A Four-Year-Old’s Memoir of Her Youth by Jamie Lee Curtis, People in My Neighborhood and Places in My Neighborhood by Shelly Lyons, and It’s Mine! by Leo Lionni. Students focus on the skills making text text-to-self connections, answering questions to understand key details in a story and in nonfiction texts, and discussing the story’s message. The texts with which students engage are not organized with instruction to build knowledge; to provide this opportunity, the teacher will have to create other instructional opportunities and/or supplement with other texts.
• In Unit 4, the title of the unit is Visualizing: Poetry and Fiction. Students listen to “School Bus” and “Sliding Board” from Did You See What I Saw? Poems about School by Kay Winters, “The Balloon Man” by Dorothy Aldis, In the Tall, Tall Grass by Denise Fleming, Sheep Out to Eat by Nancy Shaw, and The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats. Students focus on the skills of visualizing to make sense of text, informally use schema and make inferences as they visualize.
• In Unit 6, the title of the unit is Making Connections: Expository Nonfiction. Students listen to Using Your Senses by Rebecca Rissman, Sleep Well: Why You Need to Rest by Kathy Feeney, “How to Catch Your ZZZs” from KidsHealth.org, and Dinosaur Babies by Lucille Recht Penner. Students focus on the skills of exploring the difference between fiction and nonfiction, use schema to help understand nonfiction, make text-to-self connections, identify what they learn from a nonfiction book, and retell key details from the book.
• In Unit 7, the title of the unit is Wondering: Expository Nonfiction. Students listen to An Ocean of Animals by Janine Scott, Big Blue Whale by Nicola Davies, Chameleons Are Cool by Martin Jenkins, and Birds: Winged and Feathered Animals by Suzanne Slade. Students focus on the skills of using wondering to help them understand a nonfiction book, identify what they learn from the book, and explore text features of expository nonfiction. Students may glean some knowledge about animals through this unit, as the texts are tangentially related by the global topic of “animals”; however, the instructional focus is not necessarily about understanding connections among the specifics to build knowledge on a topic.
• In Unit 8, the title of the unit is Using Text Features: Expository Nonfiction. Students listen to Throw Your Tooth on the Roof by Selby B. Beeler, Velociraptor by Kate Riggs, A Day in the Life of a Garbage Collector by Nate LeBoutiller, and An Elephant Grows Up by Anastasia Suen. Students focus on the skills of using wondering to help understand an expository nonfiction book, visualize to make sense of a book, identify what they learn from a book, and use text features to better understand information in the book. Students engaging with these texts will not have the opportunity to build knowledge on a topic during this unit without supplemental texts provided beyond the core work.

In Being a Writer, the units are focused on the writing process and writing genres. Some texts are organized around a topic. In the Writing Community, students hear texts about growing up. Examples include but are not limited to the following:

• In Week 3, students hear about the things Little Critter can do by himself in All by Myself.
• In Week 4, students hear about the things Sebastian the turtle wants to be when he grows up in When I Grow Up.
• In Week 5, students hear about a boy’s perception of turning six-years-old in When I Was Five.

Though these texts are somewhat connected, they do not work together to build knowledge of a topic.

The materials reviewed for Center for Collaborative Classroom Grade 1 partially meet the criteria that 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 to make meaning and build understanding of texts and topics.

The materials do not contain a set of coherently sequenced questions and tasks that require students to analyze language, craft, and structure of individual texts in order to make meaning and build understanding of texts and topics. The majority of questions asked are ones that require the student to think critically about the text and how it applies to their life and/or surroundings. The questions do not become more complex as the year goes on. However, within a short unit (2-3 days worth of lessons) there was minimal evidence to show an expansion of knowledge. The concepts that are covered are big picture concepts such as inferencing/wondering, key ideas, but the curriculum lacks more detailed concepts such as looking at the craft, structure, or the why behind the text. The majority of the questions ask students about the key ideas and details. While there are some questions about analyzing craft, language, or structure, these are not frequent. The majority of the questions remain the same complexity throughout the year.

In Unit 2, Week 2, Making Meaning, the teacher reads aloud McDuff and the Baby and stops at certain points to ask, “What happens when the baby arrives?” and “What happens at the end of the story?” At the end of day 2, the teacher asks, “When have you felt like McDuff?” While the unit focuses on comprehension/understanding, there was no focus on craft, structure, or vocabulary minus the first day where the suggested vocabulary list is printed.

In Unit 6, Week 2, Making Meaning, After reading the book Sleep Well, the teacher prompts students to think, pair, share with the question, “What did you learn from walking and talking in your sleep?” Shortly after the teacher prompts, “When have you not gotten enough sleep? How did it feel?” At the end of the week, the questions remain standard and basic with the teacher asking questions about the text How to Catch Your ZZZ’s by inquiring, “What does the article tell us to do to sleep at night?”

In Unit 8, Week 3, Making Meaning, the teacher introduces A Day in the Life of a Garbage Collector. After the story the teacher asks, “What did you learn about how Rick starts his day?” Questions are prompted in between with the last question, “What are some things you are still wondering about garbage collectors?” The skill for this unit is using text features to understand non-fiction text. The week 3 unit is wondering which is not an identifiable non-fiction text feature.

The majority of the questions in all three components are about key ideas and details. Examples include but are not limited to the following:

• In Making Meaning, for example, students are asked what they think Leo Lionni is trying to tell them in the fable, It’s Mine, in Unit 1, Week 4, Day 2.
• In Unit 2, Week, Day 2, students are asked what problem McDuff has after hearing McDuff and the Baby.
• In Unit 5, Week 3, Day 1, students are asked what they have learned about bumblebee queens after listening to The Bumblebee Queen.
• In Unit 6, Week 1, Day 3, students are asked what they learned about how people see and hear after listening to Using Your Senses.

These types of questions occur in the Being a Reader component as well. Examples include but are not limited to the following:

• In Unit 1, Week 2, after hearing Farmer Duck, students are asked what the animals are doing to help one another.
• In Week 4, Day 1, students are asked "What is the poem about?" after hearing Hippopotamus Stew. In Being a Writer, the majority of questions are also about key ideas and details.

There are few questions about craft and structure. Examples include but are not limited to the following:

• In Unit 4, Week 2, Day 2 of Making Meaning, when students are asked what they picture in the tall, tall grass when listening to the poem "In The Tall, Tall Grass."
• In Unit 6, Week 1, Making Meaning, students are asked how nonfiction books are different from fiction books, but students do not necessarily need specific texts to answer this type of question; therefore, students are not asked to analyze the structure.

Other questions about this are found in Being a Writer, but are similar in nature and do not require students to analyze the craft or structure. There are no questions asking students who is telling the story at various points in a text except in Unit 6, Week 2, Day 4 of Being a Writer.

Integration of knowledge occurs in only a few Writing about Reading sections of Making Meaning:

• In Unit 6, Week 2, Day 3 students are asked what information from an article on Kidshealth.org is similar to the text, Sleep Well: Why You need to Rest.
• In Unit 7, Week 2, Day 3, students are asked to write about how An Ocean of Animals and Big Blue Whales are similar and different.

Questions about analyzing words and phrases are focus on visualizing. For example, in Making Making, Unit 4, Week 1, Day 3, students are asked how they pictured the balloon man in their mind.

In The Being a Reader section, questions about vocabulary and word choice focus on the meaning of a word instead of how and why an author uses a word or how to define an unknown word using the text:

• In Week 11 students listen to the poem “Sliding Board” and learn about the word, gliding, through a game.
• In Week 28, students listen to the book A Day in the Life of a Garbage Collector and discuss how some words have different meanings such as the word, contents.

The materials reviewed for Center for Collaborative Classroom Grade 1 partially meet the criteria that materials contain a coherently sequenced set of text-dependent questions and tasks that require students to analyze the integration of knowledge and ideas across both individual and multiple texts.

In the Grade 1 materials, text-dependent questions are included in the materials; however, there is inconsistency with the questions requiring students to analyze the integration of knowledge and ideas across both individual and multiple texts. Within Making Meaning students often have to retell what they heard; however, it is inconsistent with the amount of analysis required of first grade students in this component. In Being a Reader & Being a Writer, there are less text-dependent questions that help integrate the knowledge that students have learned. Majority of questions in these components are retell and opinions.

In almost every lesson in Making Meaning, there are retell questions that do not require analysis of the text or integration of ideas:

• In Unit 2, Week 1, students read Matthew and Tilly and are first asked retell questions such as what happened to Matthew and Tilly and what happens at the end of the story.
• In Unit 2, Week 3, when reading Chrysanthemum, students on the first day are asked, “What has happened to Chrysanthemum?”, “What happens that makes Chrysanthemum feel happy about her name again?” and “What happened at the musical?”.
• In Unit 7, Week 2, students hear Big Blue Whale and are asked, “How do blue whales take care of their babies?”.
• In Unit 6, Week 1, students listen to the story Using Your Senses and are asked what they learned about how people see and touch, which is not requiring an integration of ideas.
• In Unit 7, Week 2, students read Big Blue Whale, and are asked what does a blue whale do to eat whole swarms of krill which does not require analysis. In Unit 8, Week 2, students listen to Velociraptor and are asked, “How did velociraptors catch their prey”? Which does not require analysis.

In some lessons, however, it does require the students to integrate the ideas in order to analyze the text. Examples include but are not limited to the following:

• In Unit 2, Week 1, after a series of questions, on the second day, students are asked, “What do you think Matthew and Tilly learn about friendship in the story?”
• In Unit 2, Week 3, when on the second day of Chrysanthemum, the students are asked, “What do you think Chrysanthemum learns in this story?”

Very few examples are found of integrating ideas across texts. Examples include but are not limited to the following:

• In Unit 6, Week 2, Day 3, when students are asked how an article on sleep is related to the text called Sleep Well: Why You Need to Rest.
• In Unit 7, Week 2, Day 3, students are asked to write about how An Ocean of Animals and Big Blue Whales are similar and different.

In Being a Writer, much of the questioning is recall or opinions about the story. Examples include but are not limited to the following:

• In Unit 1, Week 1, students hear the story Things I Like and are asked, “What does the chimpanzee in the story like to do?” which does not require analyze or an integration of ideas.
• In Unit 1, Week 2, after hearing Farmer Duck, students are first asked, “What did you like about this story?” They are then asked the following recall question: “What are the animals doing to help one another?”

In Being a Reader, most of the questions provided are recall questions. Examples include but are not limited to the following:

• In Week 4, students participate in the shared reading of the poem “Hippopotamus Stew” and are only asked “What is this poem about?” on Day 1 and “What do you remember about this poem” on Day 2 & Day 3.
• In Week 28, students participate in the shared reading of One Duck Story: A Mucky Ducky Counting Book. On Day 1 students are asked, “What happens in this story,” and on day 2 and 3, students are asked, “What do you remember about this book?”

The materials reviewed for Center for Collaborative Classroom Grade 1 partially meet the criteria that the questions and tasks support students’ ability to complete culminating tasks in which they demonstrate their knowledge of a topic through integrated skills (e.g. combination of reading, writing, speaking, listening).

The Grade 1 materials lack culminating tasks in which students show mastery of multiple standards and skills. There are opportunities though such as “Writing about Reading” activities, journal entries, and writing pieces for students to demonstrate knowledge of a topic or a skill. These tasks provide students an opportunity to demonstrate comprehension and knowledge within a lesson and questions asked of students during the read aloud help the students to complete most of these tasks. However, the tasks that are required could be equivalent to an informal check for understanding or small assignment and no supporting materials are included in terms of exemplars, only a checklist is provided for assessment/feedback purposes. Writing opportunities are available in the Writing About Reading portion of Making Meaning at different points throughout the curriculum, but they are option and not required. According to the Publisher, “In both Making Meaning and Being a Writer, Writing About Reading activities provide multiple opportunities to analyze a single text in response to a sequence of questions presented by the teacher, and then write a response to the literature using text evidence to support opinions or conclusions.”

In Unit 2, Week 1, Day 1, Making Meaning, the teacher introduces the book Matthew and Tilly through a read aloud. The teacher engages students in a whole group discussion by asking, “What happens in this story? Why do Matthew and Tilly stop playing together in the middle of the story? What happens at the end of the story?” On day 2, students are invited to make personal questions after re-reading the story prompted by, “How does what happened to Matthew and Tilly remind you of your own life?” Students can also write about what they remembered from the book and how it relates to their own lives. The curriculum then advises the teacher to have students share out and then at the end the teacher is to model her ow think aloud and writing about connections from Matthew and Tilly.

Students have some opportunities throughout the modules to respond to literature and use the skills they have learned; however, these tasks usually are about a single text or skill and not the culmination of learning involving multiple standards. Examples include but are not limited to the following:

• In Unit 1, Week 2, Being a Writer: Students hear the story Farmer Duck and then write their opinion about the story and illustrate a part of the story. On the second day of this lesson, the students write and illustrate stories about helping, but this is not text based or connected to earlier lessons since students are writing personal stories about helping.
• In Unit 3, Week 1, Day 2, Making Meaning: Students listen to Curious George Goes Camping and after discussing the story, students write about their favorite part of the story in the “Writing about Reading” activity.
• In Unit 4, Weeks 3 - 4, Being a Writer: Students have been writing personal narratives and students spend two weeks, picking one narrative and taking it through the writing process.
• In Unit 4, Week 4, Day 2, Making Meaning: After listening to The Snowy Day, students draw what they pictured the snowy day to look like, but this activity is done without a discussion about what they visualized.
• In Unit 5, Week 1, Day 1, Being a Writer: Students listen to the story Bee and discuss how the story is different from the story Chrysanthemum, but then the activity is to freely write in their notebook a topic of their choosing.
• In Unit 5, Week 1, Day 1, Making Meaning: Students listen to the teacher read aloud part of An Extraordinary Egg. The teacher stops at targeted points to ask, “What are you wondering? Turn to your partner.” On day 2, students participate in re-telling parts of An Extraordinary Egg and listen to as the teacher reads aloud the last part of the book. The teacher facilitates a discussion, “Why do you think the alligator saves Jessica? Why do you think the frogs call the alligator a chicken?” Writing About Reading is an optional activity on day 3 where students write about their favorite part. While this week does contain many literacy components, the rigor is lacking in terms of expectations. No culminating tasks were evident.
• In Unit 6, Week 2, Day 1, Being a Writer, Students hear the story I Love School and as a follow up to the previous week’s lesson on opinion writing and throughout the read aloud, discuss the children’s opinions of school in the story. Students then independently write about the most fun activity they have done this year, which gives students the opportunity to write, reflect, and share, but does not specify skills nor gives students the ability to apply what they are learning.
• In Unit 6, Week 3, Day 1, The teacher introduces the book Dinosaur Babies through a read aloud. The teacher engages whole group discussion, “What other animals do you know of that come from eggs? Turn to your partner.” The teacher also opens up the conversation, “What is something you know about dinosaurs that isn’t in the book so far? Where did you learn that?” Day 2, students listen to the rest of Dinosaur Babies and orally make connections other baby animals. As part of independent work for the day, students complete a journal entry about a book they are reading and making a connection to their own life, another book they have read, or information they already know.
• In Unit 7, Week 2, Day 1, Being a Writer: After hearing Reading Makes you Feel Good, students write a letter to the author of the story, giving an opinion about the book. They have been writing short opinion pieces, prior to this lesson.