8th Grade - Gateway 2

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 8 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.

Questions, end of text activities, Collaborate and Present activities, and the Performance Task build upon the same knowledge and ideas across the unit.  Questions require students to cite evidence from the assigned text, make inferences, access prior knowledge, and synthesize ideas. Questions and tasks cover analysis, drawing conclusions, making inferences, evaluating, and identifying author’s purpose. Students are also given On Demand writing prompts and analysis/synthesizing charts that are connected to the texts.The Collaborate and Present activity and the Performance Task require students to refer to at least one text from the unit, but often multiple texts in the unit in order to complete the task. The Teacher Edition provides guidance to teachers in supporting students’ skills. There is a cohesiveness to the questions and tasks, yet it is more of a repetitive cohesiveness, as all units have the same structure. However, by the end of the year, there is no evidence that integrating knowledge and ideas is embedded into independent student work. While all of the work in the Performance Tasks and in the Collaborate and Present activities are directly related to one or both of the anchor texts of the units, students receive the same level of support through similar types of charts and graphic organizers across the year. The level of support and modeling provided by the teacher also stays the same throughout the units across the year.

Examples of how the units contain coherently sequenced questions, but do not require students to analyze ideas across multiple texts with growing independence include, but are not limited to:

• In Unit 2, the Essential Question is, “What inspires the will to survive in an extreme environment?” Students read anchor texts that share the topic “Survivor.” Throughout the unit, students discover how authors develop characters who find the strength to survive. After reading the short story, “The Story of Keesh” by Jack London, students record important details from the text that describe the environment and the people who live there in the Identify Evidence exercise. Then, students read an excerpt from the novel, Life of Pi by Yann Martel. Questions that support students’ analysis of knowledge and ideas include, “Why is crawling on the tarpaulin as hard as climbing the side of a volcano for Pi? What is the boiling cauldron of orange lava he expected to find?” Students record important details from the text that show the extreme setting and the actions and skills Pi uses to survive in the Identify Evidence exercise. Students complete the Performance Task: “Write an objective summary of life in the extreme environments portrayed in the two texts”. They use a note taking chart to collect evidence from both anchor texts that “show how the idea of survival in an extreme environment is developed and supported.” Supports for students include a model, a graphic organizer to analyze the model, graphic organizers to gather evidence from both texts and then organize ideas, and a checklist for revising and editing their draft.
• In Unit 3, the Essential Question is “How does art influence your everyday life?” Students read anchor texts that share the topic “The Power of Art.” After reading an excerpt from Letters to a Young Artist by Anna Deavere and the short story, “Zebra” by Chaim Potok, students answer, in writing, text-based questions during the close read. After reading, they answer questions based on key ideas and details and craft and structure. The tasks build on each other ending in a writing Performance Task in which they write an argumentative essay: “Does a person need knowledge and empathy to create great art? Consider the arguments and evidence in at least one selection as you develop your claim.” Supports for students in the writing performance task include a model, a graphic organizer to analyze the model, graphic organizers to gather evidence from both texts and then organize ideas, and a checklist for revising and editing their draft. This is the same level of support that is found in previous units.
• In Unit 6, the Essential Question is “How do childhood experiences influence our lives?” Students reach anchor texts that share the topic, “Children of War.” While reading a book review from the New York Times Book Review, “Babes in Arms” by William Boyd, students answer Key Ideas and Details questions like, “Identify the rhetorical question the reviewer asks in paragraph 6. Discuss the point he is making by asking this question.” Teachers are directed to provide sentence starters for the students.  They are also given support to ensure that students understand why the question is rhetorical. After reading, in the Identify Evidence section, students are provided with a chart in which they are to collect evidence that supports the claim that the author makes. Teachers are told to model the first example; they are provided with language to use while doing this. Then, while reading an excerpt from the memoir, First They Killed My Father by Loung Ung, students answer Key Ideas and Details questions such as, “Describe the Angkar’s value system based on details in paragraphs 7-9.  Whom does it approve of? Whom and what does the Angkar disapprove of? What is the Angkar’s plan for spreaking its value system throughout Camodia?” The teacher is directed to use the Think-Pair-Share routine with sentence starters.  After reading in the Identify Evidence section, students are asked to record in the chart evidence that “reveal[s] what life was like for Ung and Her fellow ‘new people’ under the rule of the Angkar.” The tasks build to the writing Performance Task: “Analyze in detail how childhood wartime experiences had an impact on Beah’s or Ung’s life.  Consider how the author introduces, illustrates, and elaborates upon the events.” Again, support for students include a model, a graphic organizer to analyze the model, graphic organizers to gather evidence from both texts and then organize ideas, and a checklist for revising and editing their draft. There is no release for students to independently demonstrate their knowledge of the topic with less support.
• Overall, by the end of the year, there is no evidence that integrating knowledge and ideas is embedded into independent student work. For example, in Unit 6, students are provided with a compare and contrast chart that is nearly identical to the compare charts in Units 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5. They must list the source of the evidence, the page, and explain the evidence. The Teacher Edition directions state to walk students through understanding the chart, though they have completed similar charts throughout other units in the text and in Grade 6 and 7. To help students “Revisit Author’s Strategies,” teachers are given similar instruction in Unit 3 and in Unit 6:
• In Unit 3: “Revisit the strategies the authors use to convey their thoughts and beliefs about art and artists. Draw upon the conversations you had during the Close Reading of the texts.”
• In Unit 6: “Revisit the strategies the authors use to convey the impact of childhood wartime experiences, drawing upon the conversations you had during the Close Reading of the texts.”

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 8 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 theme through integrated skills (e.g. combination of reading, writing, speaking, listening). Each unit begins with an Essential Question that connects to the topic/theme, anchor texts, and culminating task. At the end of each unit, the culminating task, Writing Performance Task, is connected to a specific topic from the unit texts.

Many of the writing tasks, practice, and discussion questions support the students in working towards the skills required to complete the culminating task. However, some tasks do not require demonstration of the specific skills and knowledge practiced before, and can be completed without them. In these instances, the teacher may need to supplement to assure their inclusion in the schedule is supportive of the overall knowledge and unit objectives.

Examples of culminating tasks that demonstrate knowledge of a topic include, but are not limited to:

In Unit 1, the topic is College 101. Students read a personal essay, “Essays that Make a Difference” by Christina Mendoza, James Gregory, and Hugh Gallagher and a news article, “The Year of the MOOC” by Laura Pappano, to examine how teens set themselves apart to get into colleges and consider what will be necessary for success as higher education evolves to meet the future. The Essential Question is “What does it take to achieve success in today’s world of higher education?” The Performance Task asks: “Analyze which college applicant (Mendoza, Gregory, or Gallagher) would be the best candidate to take open online courses. Discuss what traits of this applicant make him or her well-suited for the online environment Pappano describes in her article.” Text-dependent questions in the close reading of the texts helps students learn about how writers convey their experience and support with evidence. The task completion is dependent on students demonstrating the content comprehension and knowledge built in the unit.

In Unit 4, the topic is Designing the Future. Students read a magazine article, “La Vida Robot” from Wired Magazine by Joshua Davis, and an excerpt from Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson. The Essential Question is “What makes a good team worth more than the sum of its individual parts?” The Performance Task states: “Determine Davis’s perspective on the factors necessary for building a strong team. Then write an essay that analyzes his perspective, and either compares or contrasts it with Isaacson’s perspective.” This task specifically links to the reading and study preceding it throughout the unit. 

• In other tasks, the culminating activities are not clearly articulated to demonstrate knowledge. Some examples representative of this include (but are not limited to):
• In Unit 3, the topic is The Power of Art. Students read excerpts from Letters to a Young Artist by Anna Deavere Smith and the short story, “Zebra” by Chaim Potok. The texts show the power of art as a means for connecting with other people creatively. The Essential Question is “How does art influence your everyday life?” The Performance Task is to consider the arguments and evidence in least of the selections to develop a claim that answers the question, “Does a person need knowledge and empathy to create great art?” Questions and tasks that support the students’ building of knowledge to support the culminating tasks include. This task can be completed without the text comprehension and knowledge.
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• In Unit 7, the topic is Do the Right Thing. Students read a excerpts from The Little Rock Nine by Stephanie Fitzgerald and Elizabeth and Hazel: Two Women of Little Rock by David Margolick that share the stories of individuals who grew up on the front lines of the Civil Rights Movement and demonstrated the strength of character needed to change the world. The Essential Question is “What does a difficult situation reveal about character?” The Performance Task is to write a historical fiction narrative about an event in which the strength of people to be brave, do the right thing, heal, and forgive is tested.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 8 partially 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.

While vocabulary instruction is given appropriate time and importance within the overall materials and is emphasized as an important skill, it falls short in the isolation of the academic vocabulary words themselves and in the lack of assessment. Within each unit, there are multiple activities that provide vocabulary instruction: Academic Vocabulary Routine, Target Words (high-frequency, portable academic words highlighted before reading), a Word Study (strategy boxes in margins of text) and Words to Know (content-area words encountered while reading the text). The Words to Know are only listed and defined at the bottom of each page. Additionally; there are very few Academic Vocabulary questions within the texts. The Teacher Edition includes an Academic Vocabulary Routine that follows a six-step process: pronounce the word, rate student knowledge of the word, explain the word meaning, discuss at least two meaningful examples of the word that demonstrate the definition, coach students by having them work in pairs to apply the word in a meaningful context, and review the words the next day. The materials do not meet the expectation of instruction of vocabulary for a variety of reasons. The vocabulary is only taught within the text it is originally introduced; there are minimal references to, practice with, or assessments of new vocabulary within the unit in either the Collaborate and Present activity or the Performance Task. Also, the ways students engage with vocabulary is repetitive and lacks variety across all units. Materials do not include a consistent approach for students to regularly interact with word relationships and to build academic and figurative language in context.  Further, work with vocabulary appears before and in texts, but not across multiple texts.
Examples of how vocabulary instruction partially provides opportunities for students to interact with and build key academic vocabulary include, but are not limited to:

• In Unit 1, teachers are instructed to use the Academic Vocabulary Routine to teach the meaning of admission, unique, empathize, product, attribute, and dynamic. There is a short Word Study lesson on context clues in which students use inferences to determine the meaning of words in context. While students close read “Essays that Make a Difference,” they answer two academic vocabulary questions:“In paragraph 2, Mendoza writes that her mother couldn’t empathize with her. What kind of person might have been able to empathize with Mendoza? In paragraph 1, Gallagher states that her is ‘a dynamic figure’. What details does he give to support his claim? How do these details create humor?” New terms are introduced and follow the same procedure for the second anchor text, “The Year of the Mooc.” There is no review of earlier terms, and students are not prompted to use their new terms in the Collaborate and Present task or the writing Performance Task at the end of the unit.
• In Unit 3, teachers are instructed to use the Academic Vocabulary Routine to teach the meaning of chaotic, discipline, fundamental, rigor, empathy, and mentor. There is a short Word Study lesson on references in which students explore the word family for chaotic. While students close read an excerpt from Letters to a Young Artist, they answer only one academic vocabulary question: “How is the author herself serving as a mentor through these letters?” Additional Tier 3 terms are defined in the margin of the text, such as strict, learned, resonance, and enrich. New terms are introduced and follow the same procedure for the second anchor text, “Zebra.” A short Word Study lesson in which students explore context clues is included. There is no review of earlier terms, and students are not prompted to use their new terms in the Collaborate and Present task or the writing Performance Task at the end of the unit.
• In Unit 6, teachers are again instructed to use the Academic Vocabulary Routine to teach the meaning of contemporary,  consciousness, distinguish, credence, unpremeditated, and unrelenting. There is a short Word Study lesson in which students use a dictionary to find pronunciation, part of speech, and an example sentence for contemporary. While students close read an excerpt from  Babes in Arms, they answer two academic vocabulary questions: “Discuss why the reviewer explains in paragraph 4 that ‘a 12-year-old is conscious only of immediate circumstances.’ Describe the ‘unpremeditated’ nature of the violence and death in Sierra Leone as presented by Boyd in the review. Discuss why this is perhaps what ‘fundamentally disturbs’ him about African conflicts.” New terms are introduced and follow the same procedure for the second anchor text, an excerpt from First They Killed My Father. Again, there is no review of earlier terms, and students are not prompted to use their new terms in the Collaborate and Present task or the writing Performance Task at the end of the unit.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 8 partially meet  the criteria that materials include a progression of focused research projects to encourage students to develop knowledge in a given area by confronting and analyzing different aspects of a topic using multiple texts and source materials.

While materials support teachers in employing projects that develop students’ knowledge of a topic via provided resources, the materials do not offer a complete or thorough progression of focused, shared research and writing projects to encourage students to engage with source materials, synthesize knowledge and understanding of a topic using texts and other source materials, or to learn research habits. The end of unit tasks require students to only revisit the anchor texts to complete the task, though there are three instances in Collaborate and Present tasks in which students are asked to do research beyond the provided anchors, and there is ample practice at utilizing and gathering evidence from provided anchor texts to support work in the end of unit tasks.  However, the materials do not provide a year-long progression of research skills that align to CCSS. While the standards ask that eighth grade students “[g]ather relevant information from multiple print and digital sources, using search terms effectively; assess the credibility and accuracy of each source, and quote or paraphrase the data and conclusions of others while avoiding plagiarism and following a standard format for citation,” there is no instruction for the students or teacher to work on these skills. When research is assigned, students are given some instruction and strategies to support their research via Collaborate and Present and Performance Tasks, but the materials do not organize research projects in a way that fosters independence in students’ research abilities. An optional Research Connection task is mentioned in the Teacher Edition at the end of each unit, after the extended anchor text. This task asks students to research a particular question, but offers no guidance on what the student should do with that information. Also, the materials offer limited opportunities for students to engage in both “short” and “long” projects across the course of a year since research tasks are often short and rarely, if ever, provide opportunities for students to negotiate multiple sources. Additionally, the materials offer minimal assessment materials for research-focused tasks through end of unit projects nor are they  provided throughout the year. Finally, teacher direction and support in instruction around research-based tasks are not mentioned in the implementation guide nor in the planning pages.

Examples of how units provide some opportunities for research include:

• In Unit 1, there is a reference to a research activity after the core materials. The Research Connection after the extended text tells students to “Look at the admissions qualifications online for Harvard University. Then find the admissions statistics. Have students discuss what they might need to do in high school to be able to qualify for Harvard admission.” There is no guidance or instruction for how to do this research or what to do with the information.
• In Unit 2, there are no research references or activities after the core materials. The Research Connection after the extended text tells students to “Research diaries and articles online about real teen sailors who have attempted to circumnavigate the globe such as Laura Dekker, Abby Sunderland, and Jessica Watson.” There is no guidance or instruction for how to do this research or what to do with the information.
• In Unit 4, there is a research activity in the core materials that requires students to research beyond the anchor texts. In the Collaborate and Present task, students work with a partner using books and websites to research one of the products developed by Steve Jobs that failed. They generate a list of questions that would help them explore why the product failed. Then they answer their own questions and present findings to the class.  The directions for students include: “Choose a product to research. Then generate a list of questions that will guide you. Consider the following questions starters: “What were the characteristics of ___? Why did _____? What caused ____? and What did consumers____?” A graphic organizer is provided with the headings, “Failed product, questions, and answers.” There is minimal instruction for students to help them know how to do research and how to evaluate and cite sources.
• In Unit 5, in the Collaborate and Present task, students use the anchor texts to work in groups to “search the Internet for recordings of Orson Welles’s The War of the Worlds or the episode of Suspense Radio with 'Zero Hour.'” Then they create a presentation in which they compare the radio broadcasts to the written text. This is more of a “search” task rather than a research project.
• In Unit 6, in the Collaborate and Present task, students work with a partner to research and write a speech about Beah’s or Ung’s activism, using multiple resources. They are to consider the following questions: “Which organization does the writer work for? What is the mission of the organization? What are the writer’s duties with the organization?” A chart is provided for students to capture evidence from their research. There is no further instruction on how to research and how to evaluate and cite sources.