7th Grade - Gateway 2

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 7 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.
All  tasks in each unit build upon the topic of the unit to support students’ analysis of knowledge and ideas. 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 1, the Essential Question is “How do important decision impact a person’s life?” Students read anchor texts that share the topic “Mapping Your Life.” After reading an excerpt from the novel, Call Me Maria by Judith Ortiz Cofer and the poem, “The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost, students answer, in writing, text-based questions during the close read. Once they come to the end of a text, they answer questions based on key ideas and details and craft and structure. The tasks build on each other ending in a narrative writing Performance Task: “Write the story of an important event or decision; it can be real or imagined. What understanding or insight did this experience reveal?” Supports for students include a model, a graphic organizer to analyze the model, graphic organizers for students 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 do people express opinions in meaningful ways?” Students read anchor texts that share the topic “Your Vote! Your Rights!” After reading an excerpt from the play, Twelve Angry Men by Reginald Rose, students are provided with two charts, one that asks them to summarize the key idea of the excerpt and the second chart asks them to “list three characters that appear in this excerpt.  Explain how each character’s words and actions help to develop the central idea.” The directions to the teacher say to “think aloud as you model explaining the significance of a particular character and conversation from” the text. After reading two poems called “Democracy” by Langston Hughes and Sara Holbrook, students gather evidence then complete these tasks: “Use the evidence you collected to summarize the key idea of Hughes’s poem. Use the evidence you collected to summarize the key idea of Holbrook’s poem.  List two events from Holbrook’s ‘Democracy’. Explain how each event is important to the central idea of the text.” Teachers are instructed to model the first example. The Performance Task builds on work completed: “Compare and contrast two writers’ perspectives on democracy. Analyze the strategies they use to convey their perspectives.” The chart that students are provided, in addition to the directions to revisit the author’s strategies, suggest that students should be looking at both texts to formulate their argument. Support for students in the writing performance task include a model, a graphic organizer to analyze the model, graphic organizers for students 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 4, the Essential Question is “What are the Causes and Effects of Natural Disasters?”  Students read anchor texts that share the topic “Nature’s Fury.” Students read an excerpt from the article,  “Super Disasters of the 21st Century” by Jacqueline Adams and Ken Kostel. As they read, students build knowledge through questions that ask them to analyze key ideas: “Based on details in paragraph 8, what caused the flooding? What were the effects of the flooding?” In an On Demand writing prompt, students “Review paragraphs 10-17 and summarize the effects the levees had on the city of New Orleans.” Next, they read an excerpt from The Perfect Storm by Sebastian Junger. Students continue to build ideas as they answer questions: “Identify the data and details that the author includes to help the reader understand the effects of the storm.” In the Identify Evidence section, students record examples from the text that tell about the causes and effects of giant waves. Finally, in the writing Performance Task, students analyze across texts as they “compare and contrast strategies and techniques that each author uses to describe the causes and effects of disasters.” Again, support for students include a model, a graphic organizer to analyze the model, graphic organizers for students 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 demonstrate their knowledge of the topic with less support.
• In Unit 7, the Essential Question is “What simple steps can people take to make a difference for those in need?” Students read anchor texts that share the topic, “A Better World.” They build knowledge and ideas as they study how authors use reasons, facts, and evidence to construct arguments and support their claims. While reading an excerpt from The End of Poverty by Jeffrey Sachs, students answer Key Ideas and Details questions such as, “How does the author explain the claim that giving more money to ‘solve the crisis of extreme poverty’ would ‘provide for U.S. national security?” In the Identify Evidence exercise, students complete a chart in which they find and explain evidence for the author’s ideas about how to end poverty.  Next, students read an article, “Saving the World One Click at a Time” by Renee Carver. They further build on ideas by answering an on demand writing prompt, “How does the information about FreeRice support the author’s claim in paragraph 3 about charities and the Internet?” In the writing Performance Task, students write an essay: “Trace the authors’ lines of argument regarding effective ways to fight poverty. Evaluate the specific claims, distinguishing which claims are supported by reasons, facts, and evidence, and which are not.” 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 7, students are provided with a compare and contrast chart that is nearly identical to the compare charts in Units 3, 4, 5, and 6. 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. To help students “Revisit Author’s Strategies,” teachers are given similar instruction in Unit 3 and in Unit 7:
• In Unit 3, “Revisit the strategies the authors use to convey perspective. Draw upon conversations students had during the Close Reading of the texts.”
• In Unit 7, “Review the strategies and evidence the authors use to clarify their views by reviewing written responses you made, and conversations you had, during the Close Reading of the texts.”

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 7 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 6, the topic is America Speaks. Students read three poems and a novel excerpt where poets and authors share their vision of American identity through literature. The Essential Question is “What does it mean to be American?”. The Performance Task is an essay in which students “compare and contrast the writers’ perspectives, referencing their literary devices and figurative language.”  Questions and tasks that support the students’ building of knowledge to support the culminating tasks include:

• In-text questions while reading “I Hear America Singing“ include: “What words or phrases support the idea that Whitman celebrates Americans doing their various jobs?”
• In-text questions while reading “I, Too, Sing America” include: “Alvarez assigns physical human traits ‘from the soles,’ ‘to the great plain face’ to places in the Americas ‘Tierra del Fuego’, to ‘Canada.’ What is the effect of her use of personification?”
• In the Identify Evidence section after reading the three texts, students gather evidence in a chart answering the prompt: “What details does each poet use to describe the American experience?” With each evidence they “explain how the evidence introduces, illustrates, or elaborates upon the central idea.”
• In-text questions while reading Kira Kira include: “Describe the family’s experience and their reaction to segregation in America: ‘COLORED IN BACK’. Identify evidence to elaborate on the idea of isolation weaved throughout this section”
• In the Collaborate and Present section, students memorize one of the poems from the unit and brainstorm ways to “enhance the presentation through tone, multimedia components, visual displays, or acting.”
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• 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 2, the topic is Sports Report. In this unit, student read informational articles to “explore the idea that for athletes, mental determination can play as crucial a role as physical prowess.” The Essential Question is “What can we learn about ourselves from studying sports and athletes?” The Performance Task requires students to use evidence from the two texts to develop or refute the claim that mental strength and agility are just as important as physical prowess in sports; however, the culminating task is able to be completed with only surface-level understanding of the texts read, rather than a deeper demonstration of knowledge and comprehension.

Other examples focus partially on knowledge, although they are focused on comprehension of the text and author's craft. Some examples include:

In Unit 3, the topic is Your Vote! Your Rights!. Students read an excerpt from the play Twelve Angry Men and the poems “Democracy” by Langston Hughes and “Democracy” by Sara Holbrook. The Performance Task ask: “Compare and contrast two writers’ perspectives on democracy. Analyze the strategies they use to convey their perspectives.” Questions support the students’ building of knowledge to support the culminating task and all requires specific text-based information.

In Unit 4, the topic is Nature’s Fury. Students read excerpts from “Super Disasters of the 21st Century” by Jacqueline Adams and Ken Kostel and The Perfect Storm by Sebastian Junger. The Performance Task is to “Compare and contrast strategies and techniques that each author uses to describe the causes and effects of disasters. Consider the text structure, choice of vocabulary, and use of data and details.” This task does not demand students demonstrate knowledge of the content nor theme, but does demonstrate understanding of close reading and writing. 

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 7 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 flawless, humble, endure, resolve, dramatic and transform. There is a short Word Study lesson on roots and prefixes following the academic vocabulary introduction. While students close read an excerpt from Call Me Maria, they answer only two academic vocabulary questions: “What does resolved mean? Why doesn’t Maria try to resolve her parents’ conflict? Earlier in the story the street was crowded, hot, and dry. Use context clues to define what transformed means in paragraph 35. What else has been transformed in this story?” New terms are introduced and follow the same procedure for the second anchor text, “The Road Not Taken.”  A Word Study follows where students work with a thesaurus entry. 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 reasonable, impression, drive, customary, preliminary, accused and resumes. There is a short Word Study lesson on context clues in which students use and try to determine meanings of words in sample sentences. While students close read an excerpt from Twelve Angry Men, they are not asked any academic vocabulary questions. Additional Tier 3 terms and phrases are defined in the margin of the text, such as prosecuting attorney, sharp, hammered his points home, and crowbar. New terms are introduced and follow the same procedure for the second anchor texts, “Democracy.” A short Word Study lesson is included in which students explore word families.  Again, there are no academic vocabulary questions embedded in these texts. 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 bilingually, blithe, heartland, hemisphere, maestro, and robust. There is a short Word Study lesson on dictionary skills in which students use a dictionary to find the pronunciation, part of speech, and adverb form of the word, melodious. While students close read three poems, they are asked no academic vocabulary questions. New terms are introduced and follow the same procedure for the second anchor text, an excerpt from Kira Kira. Students answer one question referring to the academic vocabulary: “Explain what the sisters ‘meld’. How does this add to the seriousness of the moment? How does the use of alliteration affect the phrase?” 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 7 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 two 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 seventh 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 one research reference or activity after the core materials. The Research Connection after the extended text has students “Read and compare biographies of other Supreme Court Justices such as Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas, and Ruth Bader Ginsberg.” There is no guidance or instruction for how to do this research or what to do with the information.
• In Unit 2, there is one research reference or activity after the core materials. The Research Connection after the extended text has students “Research the history of bicycle racing. Consider how it began, who the early champions were and how training methods and equipment have evolved. Investigate when doping became a problem in the sport and what is being done to prevent it today.” There is no guidance or instruction for how to do this research or what to do with the information. Units 3, 5, and 6 follow a similar pattern.
• 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 in a small group to “research one of the disasters in greater detail. Describe the effects of the disaster on the country, city, or community. Use and compare multiple resources for information about the disaster.” The directions for students state, “Working with your group, select one natural disaster to research. Go to the library or use the Internet to find out more about the effects of that natural disaster. Discuss the reliability of the sources you find with your group. After selecting at least three reliable sources, record your notes in a chart.” There is minimal instruction for students to learn how to evaluate sources. In the teacher instructions, teacher should “point out that not all sources are reliable, especially websites. Discuss what makes a source reliable. Websites ending in.org are usually trustworthy. Most contain information that can be proven and supported with evidence. The copyright date tells me when this information was posted.”
• In Unit 7, 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 again work in groups to research one of the charities mentioned in the anchor text, “Saving the World One Click at a Time.” They choose one of the charities and research how much money supporters donate, what percentage is spent to purchase food or livestock, how many people it helps a year, etc. They are given a chart to gather evidence, but no other guidance in how to do their research.