3rd Grade - Gateway 2

The instructional materials reviewed for Center for Collaborative Classroom Grade 3 partially meet the criteria that texts are organized around a topic/topics to build students’ ability to read and 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:

The Expository Nonfiction unit in Being a Writer focuses on various animals. There are seven nonfiction texts in the unit about animals: Are You a Dragonfly?, A Pack of Wolves and Other Canine Groups, Reptiles, The ABCs of Endangered Animals, Into the Sea, Panda Kindergarten, and Where Butterflies Grow. While students learn some information about the animals in the texts, there is not a consistent topic or connection that builds knowledge and vocabulary beyond these single texts. There are some opportunities for students to make connections about commonalities among different animals using these texts, although the teacher will have to provide those explicit connections.

Other text sets in Grade 3 Making Meaning are not organized by topic; rather, they are organized around the literacy skills practiced. Examples include:

• In Unit 2, the title of the unit is Visualizing: Poetry and Fiction. Students listen to the texts “Seal” by William Jay Smith, Cherries and Cherry Pits by Vera B. Williams, The Spooky Tail of Prewitt Peacock by Bill Peet, and Aunt Flossie’s Hats (and Crab Cakes Later) by Elizabeth Fitzgerald Howard. Students focus on the skills of visualizing to make sense of text, informally using schema to make inferences as they visualize, informally consider a character’s point of view and distinguish it from their own, and discuss characters’ feelings. While these skills are practiced, connections to build knowledge of topics is not provided with these disparate texts.
• In Unit 4, the title of the unit is Wondering/Questioning: Fiction. Students listen to the texts The Girl Who Loved Wild Horses by Paul Goble, The Emperor and the Kite by Jane Yolen, A Day’s Work by Eve Bunting, Mailing May by Michael O. Tunnell, and Brave Irene by William Steig. What links these texts together in this unit is the practice of strategies and skills; students focus on the skills of using wondering/questioning to understand a story, think about whether their questions are answered in the story, refer to the text to support their thinking, make predictions about a story, make inferences about a character in a story, discuss the lesson in a story, and visualize parts of a story. To provide connections in supporting students building knowledge with Unit 4, the teacher will have to create and supplement with other materials.
• In Unit 5, the title of the unit is Wondering/Questioning: Narrative Nonfiction (Biography). Students listen to the texts Brave Harriet by Melissa Moss, Wilma Unlimited: How Wilma Rudolph Became the World’s Fastest Woman by Kathleen Krull, and Sonia Sotomayor: A Judge Grows in the Bronx by Jonah Winter. Students focus on the skills of identifying what they learn from a narrative nonfiction book and use wondering/questioning to make sense of nonfiction. In this text set, students consider both the structures of the texts while learning about the women's experiences. However, the texts are not tied together around a topic that will yield expanding students’ knowledge and vocabulary other than understanding the features of nonfiction biographies.
• In Unit 7, the title of the unit is Wondering/Questioning: Expository Nonfiction. Students listen to the texts Flashy Fantastic: Rain Forest Frogs by Dorothy Hinshaw Patent, Explore the Desert by Kay Jackson, Polar Bears by Mark Newman, and “Polar Bears in Peril” by Elizabeth Winchester. Students focus on the skills of using wondering/questioning to make sense of an expository text, use schema to articulate what they think they know about the topic of an expository text prior to reading, identify what they learn from an expository text, and compare and contrast two expository texts on the same topic. However, there is a lack of opportunity for students to grow their knowledge of a topic in using these texts. To provide this opportunity, the teacher will have to supplement and provide other literacy supports.

The materials reviewed for Center for Collaborative Classroom 3 partially 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.

In Making Meaning students are asked questions about the read alouds that require students to think about the process of reading and discussing text with classmates, however, most of the questions are focused on this process and not on deeply analyzing the language, key ideas, details, craft, and structure of individual texts.

In Unit 3, Week 3, the teacher reads the books Boundless Grace and Amazing Grace to the students. They make inferences to understand characters and their changes. Additionally, students compare and contrast the same character from the two books. Students answer the following questions: "What have you found out about Grace and her family? How do you think Grace feels? What is Grace thinking about her family at this point? What is this story about?"

The Teacher Guide states, "Remind the students that the main character in a story usually has a problem that gets solved by the end of the story. Ask: What is the problem in the story and how is it solved?" The Teacher Guide also directs the teacher to tell students, "We call the place where a story takes place the setting of the story. Explain that the setting of a story often plays an important part in the story. Ask: What is the setting of the story, or where does the story take place? Why is that important?" Later, the teacher again is to ask, "What is the setting of this story? How would you describe the setting? Is it a place you would like to visit? Why or why not?" On Day 3, students create a character web for the main character Grace. Questions to support the activity include, "What do you know about Grace? What does she say, do, or think that helped you figure that out?" Students turn to a partner and share their ideas. Then, the teacher models how to construct the character web by adding an inference and identifying clues that can be added to the character web for Grace. Students are to add two more inferences and the text clues that support those inferences. The class then discusses the students' inferences and if they agree with the inferences of others, along with why or why not. Finally, on Day 4, students are asked to determine how Grace feels over the course of the story (beginning, middle, and end), how her feelings change, and what causes her feelings to change." The reading of Amazing Grace (which occurs earlier than the setting of Boundless Grace) is limited to comparing and contrasting elements in the two texts.

In Unit 5, students read Brave Harriet. Though the unit comes mid-year, the questions and analysis tasks remain roughly the same in difficulty and have the same level of scaffolding as was present 2 units earlier. For example, "What did you learn about how Harriet became a pilot? What did you learn about Gustav and Harriet in this part of the story? Based on what you know so far about Harriet Quimby, what do you wonder about her?" Students then create a double-entry journal to respond to the "wonder" questions about the subject of the biography. The wrap up questions for the text focus primarily on summary (What information might you include in a newspaper article about Harriet Quimby and her flight across the English Channel? What might you title an article about Harriet's flight?) and basic information (What new things did you learn about Harriet Quimby? Were any of the things you wondered about explained? If so, what did you find out about them?)

In Being a Writer students are also asked questions about the read alouds that require students to analyze the language, key ideas, details, craft, and structure of individual texts.

• In Unit 4, Week 3, Day 1, the Teacher Edition states, “Tell the students that you will reread passages that describe the character of Elizabeth. Ask them to close their eyes and imagine what Elizabeth is like as they listen. Reread page 8 aloud, beginning at the top of the page. Stop after: p. 8 'So she put on the paper bag and followed the dragon.' Ask: 'What might you guess about Elizabeth from this description? What makes you think so?'”
• In Unit 8, Week 1, Day 3, the Teacher Edition states, “Ask the students to open to Student Writing Handbook page 28, where the 'The Polliwogs' is reproduced, and have them reread the poem to themselves. After a moment, ask: 'What words in this poem helped you imagine the polliwogs? How did the poet have fun with words?'”

While some units approach the depth of text analysis for a Grade 3 student, the overall focus of most questions and tasks is on comprehending the text, summarizing it, and responding to basic questions about the text's content, events, or characters without routinely extending into a deep analysis of the texts.

The instructional materials reviewed for Center for Collaborative Classroom 3 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.

The materials in Grade 3 contain some coherently sequenced sets of text-dependent questions and tasks. Making Meaning and Being a Writer, the questions provided frequently ask students to refer to an individual text, and some help build students’ understanding. Questions provided don’t always lead students to analyze or integrate knowledge. Opportunities to integrate knowledge and ideas across multiple texts are typically offered only as extension tasks.

In Making Meaning and Being a Writer, students use a text over the course of several days. Each day, to a limited extent, questions and tasks require students to integrate knowledge about the text. Examples include:

• In Unit 2, Week 2 Making Meaning, the teacher reads sections from The Spooky Tail of Prewitt Peacock, and stops periodically to ask questions, such as “What happens to Prewitt in the story?” “How do Phineas and the other peacocks feel about Prewitt at the beginning of the story? … How do Phineas and the other peacocks feel about Prewitt at the end of the story?” Visualizing is a strategy during this week’s As the week progresses, the teacher models visualizing, then asks students to use visualizing as they listen to segments of the story. Questions are posed, such as “What did you see in your mind as you listened to this part?” “How do you imagine Prewitt feels in this part of the story? How would you feel if you were him?” Then the class is to reflect on visualizing, and respond to this question: “How did visualizing parts of The Spooky Tail of Prewitt Peacock help you understand and enjoy the story?” Students are encouraged to transfer the skill of visualizing as they read their independently selected books. This is the extent of the question sets that build knowledge across individual texts and across texts for this week of instruction.
• In Unit 3, Week 1, in Making Meaning, the teacher reads The Paper Bag Princess on day one and asks, “What happens in the story? What problems does Elizabeth face? How does she solve the problem?” On the following day, students listen to the same story read aloud again and are asked, “How would you describe the character Princess Elizabeth?” They refer back to the previous day's work to grow their understanding and consider the text's knowledge.
• In Unit 3, Week 2, in Making Meaning, students hear Julius, the Baby of the World, make inferences about the characters, and explore their changes. The teacher asks, “What is Lilly’s problem in the story? What do you know about Lilly? What clues know that? In their student response books, teams of two students write in response to the questions about Lilly at the beginning and end of the story. Afterwards, the entire class discusses Lilly’s changes.
• In Unit 4, in Making Meaning, students various fiction texts such as A Day’s Work, which is about a young Mexican American boy who helps his grandfather find work. Students are asked what the story is about on Day 1. By Day 3, students are asked what the main character learned.
• In Unit 5, Week 1, in Making Meaning, students read the text Brave Harriet. On the first day, students answer questions, such as "What did you learn about Harriet Quimby?" By Day 3, students questions, such as "Why This builds knowledge across one text about Harriet Quimby.
• Being a Writer, Genre Personal Narrative, Week 1, Day 1, students Grandma’s Records. The teacher asks, “In this story, Eric writes about special things he did with someone he loved. What special things does he write?” The next question students respond to is “If you wanted to write about special things you’ve done with someone you love, what would you write about?”
• Being a Writer, Genre Functional Writing, Week 1, Day 3, students hear 1-2-3 Draw Ocean Life. The teacher asks, “What does this author do to help us learn how to draw a dolphin? What do you notice about how the author writes direction? In what ways are the illustrations helpful? What do you know about how to do that you could write about?” These questions are linked to the original texts, but don't build upon one another to grow students' knowledge beyond the texts themselves.

Most address literal aspects of the story, only occasionally requiring inference. Most inferential questions are based on explicit information in the text. Therefore, many of the questions and tasks are not sufficient in leading students to analyze ideas within and across texts. Consistent opportunities are not provided throughout the year-long materials to meet the criteria of this indicator. Few opportunities are included in the materials for students to independently integrate knowledge and ideas across multiple texts. Examples include:

• In Unit 2, Week 3 of Making Meaning, students are introduced to “Aunt Flossie’s Hats (and Crab Cakes Later)" and learn about the story's setting and characters. On Day 1, the teacher asks: “What are some stories Aunt Flossie tells about her hats?" On Day 2, the teacher rereads the text and students are directed to visualize the text and draw a picture of something that they visualized clearly. On Day 3, students read their independent reading text and use the words in the books to create their own mental images of what is being On Day 4, students utilize their Student Response Books to share the passages that they chose to visualize, read the passages aloud to their partners, and then describe what they visualized.
• In Unit 4, Week 2 of Making Meaning, students hear a fictional story about a boy and his grandfather, A Day's Work. Students can integrate knowledge and ideas in the Writing about Reading task: “Explain that the students will now write their own paragraphs about the kind of person Abuelo is, using the inferences they made from clues in the story.” However, the there are only two questions leading up to the task which include, "What happens in this story? What kind of a person is What in the story makes you think so?" These questions do not require students to analyze knowledge or ideas.
• In Unit 5, Week 3 of Making Meaning, students are asked "Were any of the things you wondered about explained in today’s reading? What did you learn about them?"Students are asked to volunteer to share their thinking with the class. However, there is not a coherent sequenced set of questions requiring students to analyze the text that was read. Students are only asked questions regarding plot details that they wanted to learn more about as opposed to an in-depth analysis conducted about the text being discussed. For example, students are asked, "Based on what you have learned, what else do you wonder about Sonia Sotomayor?" as a follow-up question. This question relates to basic comprehension skills, but does not delve into analytical skills.
• In Unit 7, Week 2 of Making Meaning, students listen to "A Dry Land," which is the first chapter of the text Explore the Desert. Teachers are asked to pause at specific points and ask, "What question can you ask right now?" Students can turn to their partner and individually record their questions. Students are also encouraged to share their questions with the class. The whole-group questions are then recorded by the teacher. Though students are asked to consistently dive deeper into the text through asking questions, there is no scaffolding provided to move away from text comprehension and move into an in-depth textual analysis.
• In Unit 8, Week 4 of Making Meaning, students hear Possum’s Tail. Students themselves questions as they read. Students are asked, "What questions did you have as you listened to the play? Were your questions answered? How?" These questions address student comprehension of the text, but do not provide targeted areas for analysis of the ideas presented within the text.
• In the Being a Writer section, students read various nonfiction texts in the Expository Nonfiction Unit about animals, such as Are You a Dragonfly?, Reptiles, A Pack of Wolves and Other Canine Groups, and The ABCs of Endangered Animals. Text-dependent questions are asked after each text, such as “What is something you found out about dragonflies?” In Week 4, Day 1, students to research animals to help write their own nonfiction report about their animal, which supports students in integrating ideas across multiple texts.

The instructional materials reviewed for Center for Collaborative Classroom Grade 3 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 (or, for grades 6-8, a theme) through integrated skills (e.g., combination of reading, writing, speaking, listening).

In the Grade 3 materials, the opportunity to use integrated skills in culminating projects is inconsistent. There are some opportunities in the Writing about Reading activities, journal entries, and writing pieces for students to demonstrate knowledge of a topic or skill. In most lessons or tasks, students’ oral and written responses provide the teacher with information about students’ readiness to move forward in the materials. Some of these tasks provide students with an opportunity to demonstrate comprehension and knowledge of a topic or topics, but are not necessarily culminating tasks. Many fall under the Extension or Technology Extension sections, which may be perceived as optional. 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.”

During the six-week expository nonfiction unit of Being a Writer, students immerse themselves in nonfiction texts about animals. Partners select an animal to research. For the culminating task, students write an informational report.

In Unit 2 of Making Meaning, students discuss text features. Students hear the text, Aunt Flossie’s Hats (and Crab Cakes Later); however, the optional Writing about Reading task does not require students to use the reading of the text. The students are asked to write about their favorite hats. If there is time available, a few volunteers can share their writing with the class.

In Unit 3, Week 1, Making Meaning, the culminating task focuses on The Paper Bag Princess. On Day 4 in an optional Writing about Reading task, students write opinion pieces about the main character’s decision. During Week 4, the teacher reads aloud The Raft. In Week 5, students hear Alexander, Who’s Not (Do you hear me? I mean it!) Going to Move. For the optional Writing about Reading task, students write about how the two texts are alike and different. If time is available, students share their writing with the class.

In Genre Fiction of Being a Writer, students write fiction stories after hearing various fictional studies such as Tacky the Penguin. In Week 6, students present their fictional story in the author’s chair.

In Unit 7, Week 3, students hear Polar Bear and “Polar Bears in Peril.” On the fourth day of this week, students compare and contrast the two texts in the optional Writing about Reading Section. If there is time available, students present their writing.

In Genre Functional Writing of Being a Writer, students explore functional text writing. Students write directions for an activity they know how to do. In Week 3, Day 5, students share in author’s chair.