1st Grade - Gateway 2

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 1 meet the expectations for texts organized around topic/topics to build students’ knowledge and their ability to read and comprehend complex texts proficiently. All of the domains created in K-2 revolve around a topic through a set of texts rather than an anchor text. The Program Guide states, “In the Knowledge Strand, students spend several weeks at a time learning about a topic in science, social studies, history, literature, etc. (CKLA, Program Guide, page 45). The purpose of the domains is to immerse students in a topic for several weeks. “Children gain deep exposure to topics such as nursery rhymes and fables; seasons and weather; and presidents and American symbols” (CKLA, Program Guide p. 30). The topics also build on each other each year.

All of the domains in the Grade 1 curriculum are centered around a topic. The topics are as follows: Fables and Stories; The Human Body; Different Lands, Similar Stories; Early World Civilization; Early American Civilization; Astronomy; The History of the Earth; Animals and Habitats; Fairy Tales; A New Nation: American Independence; Frontier Explorers; Presidents and American Symbols.

Texts included in each domain support the building knowledge about the topic. Specifically, in Domain 4 (Early World Civilizations), the texts include:

• Historical literary texts introducing students to Mesopotamia, writing in Mesopotamia, religion in Mesopotamia, the Great Pyramids, the Sphinx, Hatshepsut, and Tutankhamun.
• Informational texts are about the hanging gardens of Babylon, the people of the Nile, writing in Ancient Egypt, the gods of Ancient Egypt, the Great Pyramids, the religions in Mesopotamia and ancient Egypt, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.

Additionally, in Domain 9, (Fairy Tales), the texts include:

• Sleeping Beauty, Rumpelstiltskin, Rapunzel, The Frog Prince, Hansel and Gretel, and Jack and the Beanstalk.

The topics will help Grade 1 students engage in a variety of prose and poems to deepen their understanding of history, social studies, and science. One such poem is a poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow called “Paul Revere." In addition, in Domain 10, students read a song, “Yankee Doodle.”

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 1 meet the expectations 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 in order to make meaning and build understanding of texts and topics. While many primary analysis questions in key details are modeled by the teacher at first, there are questions and supports for students to learn about how academic vocabulary of the materials supports the content.

For example, in Domain 2, Lesson 10, students are given a vocabulary word and have to determine which body system it belongs to based on students' comprehension of the texts. In Skills 2, Lesson 1, the teacher asks, “Who are the main characters in the story, and what did Gran do in the Swiss Alps?" Another example of students not being required to analyze is in Domain 4, Lesson 5, “On what continent is Egypt located?” and in Domain 4, Lesson 7, “Summarize the myth you just heard about Amon-Ra’s creation.” These questions are examples of engaging students in understanding the key ideas and details needed to fully comprehend the materials.

Some questions require students to analyze the text and engage in implicit as well as explicit understanding. One example is in Domain 1, Lesson 9, when the teacher asks, “Why do you think Peter is crying if he has gotten away from Mr. McGregor?” Another example is in Skills 4, Lesson 10, a question that shows this is: “In what ways are mandrills like chimps?” Another example is in Domain 4, Lesson 1: ”Could the Mesopotamians have settled in this area if it had not been on the banks of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers? Why or why not?” Another example is in Domain 4, Lesson 15, “In what ways do Christianity and Judaism seem the same to you? What are some ways that they are different."

The instructional materials reviewed in Grade 1 meet the requirements that materials contain a coherently sequenced set of text-based questions and tasks that require students to build knowledge and integrate ideas across both individual and multiple texts. Knowledge is also built across the grades. For example, the Native Americans topic is taught on several different occasions each year so students have an understanding of the history, arts, and culture.

When knowledge is introduced in a Domain, it builds upon itself. For example, in Domain 4, students begin learning about the development of early civilizations by learning about features of civilizations. Then they dive deeper by learning about specific civilizations such as Mesopotamia and Egypt. Finally, the students get a historical introduction to the three world religions. In each of these Domains, knowledge is built through comprehension questions at the end of the story such as, “What do we know about Aztec religion based on today’s read aloud?" (Domain 5, Lesson 5) and “How are the Arctic and the Sonoran Desert different?“ (Domain 8, Lesson 3).

In addition, knowledge is built before the read alouds. The teacher begins the lesson with a review of the material from the read aloud the previous day. This is important because the information regularly builds on itself, so this review helps support students’ comprehension. For example, in Domain 10, Lesson 7, students review the stories they have read so far about the Revolutionary War as well as answer questions that they should know the answers to based on the previous read alouds such as, “Why were the colonists at war with Great Britain?” This is all done before students hear the read aloud for that day, preparing students to be able to engage and learn fully.

Domain 3 builds knowledge using fiction as well as nonfiction. In Lesson 2, a comprehension question is “Which person do you think is Rhodopis based on the way she is described in the story? Which details or information in the story helped you?” This requires students to analyze the details from the story to answer the question. In Domain 3, Lesson 3, students have to describe the similarities and differences between “Cinderella” and “The Girl with the Red Slippers.” Similarly, in Domain 3, Lesson 4, students have to share some ways that the plots of the three fairy tales are similar and different.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 1 meet expectations for questions and tasks that 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, and listening). Questions within lessons consistently align with or support culminating tasks. Most writing tasks provide an opportunity for students to integrate thinking and learning from primary texts. Student presentation opportunities are suggested as planning time allows.

Some of the culminating tasks are optional and students who need remediation may not engage in these enriching experiences. For example, in Domain 1, a culminating task has students draw a picture of each page of a booklet to show the events of a story they read in the Domain and write or dictate a sentence to go with each picture. In Domain 5, students create their own Civilization Chart to share with their families. In Domain 8, students make Venn Diagrams comparing and contrasting two habitats they read about. In Domain 10, students can pretend that they are one of the people who lived in America during its struggle for independence from Great Britain.

At the end of the Domains teachers make informed decisions about instruction using the Skills assessments, which are examples of culminating tasks that reflect students' depth of understanding about the topics and skills previously taught. For example, in Domain 2, students look at a row of pictures that show different systems of the body and identify specific information they have heard and read. In the Skills Sections, some of the assessments also integrate skills and knowledge. For example, in Skills 4, Lesson 24, students listen to a word that they write down (listening and writing skills), and then they read a story and answer comprehension questions (reading and writing skills).

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 1 meet the requirements that materials include a cohesive, year-long plan for students to interact and build key academic vocabulary words in and across texts. Vocabulary is repeated both in context and across multiple texts. Students are supported to accelerate vocabulary learning with vocabulary in their reading, listening, speaking, and writing. Each Knowledge lesson has an introduction of vocabulary, use of the vocabulary in the application section, key vocabulary brainstorming in the Domain review, and a vocabulary assessment. The end of domain vocabulary assessment is used to determine students’ understanding of the vocabulary words in context. The assessment evaluates each student’s retention of domain and academic vocabulary words.

Each domain lesson contains a list of four to five vocabulary words that will be introduced in either the before reading section or during the read aloud. In the lists, there is also one bold-faced word that is explored more in depth and described below. These words are Tier 2 and Tier 3 words. Some of the words included in Domain 2 are support, voluntary, digestion, heart, nerves, disease, healthy, nutrients, and complicated. Not only are these words taught in the beginning of the lesson, but they are also used in the comprehension questions. In Lesson 2, one of the questions is, "Why do you have a skeleton?" and another question is, “Your skull bones are located in your head. What do they protect?” Other examples of words taught are in Domain 8, Lesson 5: climate, species, store, temperate, territory. In Domain 10, Lesson 4, the words are approved, commander in chief, declaration, and independent, and in Domain 11, Lesson 2, the words are passes, pioneers, trailblazer, and wilderness.

After each read aloud in the Domain, there is an activity involving one of the vocabulary words. For example, in Domain 2, Lesson 7, the featured word is disease. After the teacher describes it more in depth and gives the students an opportunity to discuss any known diseases, the teacher then reads several sentences, and the students decide if she is describing a disease or not. In some lessons, they also address multiple meaning words. In Domain 1, Lesson 7, the word left is introduced with its multiple meanings. In Domain 2, Lesson 8, the multiple meaning word is brush.

At the end of each Domain unit, there is also an assessment on the vocabulary words. Prior to the assessment, there is a review. For example, in Domain 2, the teacher gives students the word nutrients, and they have to brainstorm everything that comes to mind when they hear the word.

The Skills Strand also introduces a few minute vocabulary words before each decodable that the teacher previews and discusses with the students prior to reading. While students are reading the decodable, the student is supposed to stop them when a vocabulary word is present. For example in Lesson 2, the teacher stops and says “show me what it means to shrug."

Student support and challenge in provided as well. For example in Skills 4, Lesson 12, it is suggested that the teacher gathers pictures to illustrate the multiple meanings of the core vocabulary word bill. In Skills 4, lesson 17, as a challenge, students can illustrate words and phrases.

The materials reviewed for Grade 1 meet the expectations of materials containing writing tasks and instruction which support students in building and communicating substantive understanding of topics and texts.

The writing tasks, both short and long term, include instruction in narrative, opinion, and informational writing. Domain 1 begins with narrative writing and in Skills, Unit 6, students write personal narrative. Students use graphic organizers to plan before drafting. In Domains 2, 5, and 11, students explore the genre of informational writing. In Domain 5, students write one phrase or one-sentence responses to read alouds and then synthesize all of the sentences to write a paragraph. Similarly, students write descriptive paragraphs in Skills, Unit 2, first about a grape (as a class for modeling) and then individually about an animal. Opinion writing also occurs in Domain 6, Domain 8, and Skills, Unit 5.

Across the Knowledge section and Skills Section, the students learn a three-step writing process that is used throughout the year. First students plan, then they draft, and then they edit. Teachers are expected to draw attention to these steps as students work on all types of writing. This is addressed in both Knowledge and Skills lessons. In Skills Unit 3, Lesson 2, students begin by planning by thinking about the story they read the previous day and retell it together using a story map. In the next lesson, students draft a retelling based on the story map. Lastly, they use a step-by-step checklist to edit a draft retelling of the fable.

While no formal evaluation tool is used in this curriculum, a writing portfolio is suggested. There are specific items that are suggested to be included in the portfolio. Writing is also used to determine if students understand information.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 1 meet the expectations of materials including a progression of focused shared research and writing projects to encourage students to develop knowledge and understanding of a topic, using texts and other source materials. Students engaging with the materials are writing, reading, and seeking out new information as well as beginning to synthesize information for research and sharing out.

Students are provided with background information in each lesson that is intended to give the students the information they need for the text being covered. There is some guidance for teachers to build students' independent study and researching skills. Some of these components are optional and come as part of the Pausing Points and/or domain reviews and assessments, although the directions to the teacher identify the focus.

Examples of how the Grade 1 materials support students' growing research skills include, but are not limited to, the following examples:

• In Unit 4 of the Skills Section, beginning in Lesson 22, the teacher tells the students that they will be writing a paragraph on an animal that they have read about in the decodable reader and will be researching in the text. They begin practicing gathering information as a class before gathering information on an independent topic. Students complete planning activity pages by taking notes, and a planning template is provided. In Lesson 23, students are taught how to take the information they researched and draft, using a provided template.
• In Domain 2, there are several lessons (1, 2, 4, 5, and 6) where the teacher is expected to ask the students if there are any remaining questions, and that if time allows, individual students or the class can research the answers to the questions.
• In Domain 5, at a Pausing Point, the students can use the internet to research, finding pictures and descriptions of Mayan archaeological sites to grow knowledge with what they are hearing and reading in the Domain.
• Domain 11, there is an optional Pausing Point research activity on Ellis Island and Angel Island, where students can do research on either place and present it to the class. This synthesis of listening, reading, identifying correct sources, and then articulating back what they've learned is appropriately complex for this time of year for Grade 1 students.