Kindergarten - Gateway 2

The materials reviewed for Kindergarten 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, p. 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 year to year.

All of the domains in the Kindergarten materials are centered around a topic. The topics covered are as follows: Fairytales, Five Sense, Stories, Plants, Farms, Native Americans, Kings and Queens, Seasons and Weather, Columbus and the Pilgrims, Colonial Town and Townspeople, Taking Care of the Earth, and Presidents and American Symbols.

Texts included in each domain support the building knowledge about the topic. Specifically in the Farms Domain (Domain 5), texts include:

• Literary stories introducing Old MacDonald and his farm, the animals and the foods we get from farms, and one about Little Red Hen
• Informational stories about cows, chickens, pigs, sheep, crops, the four seasons, and turning crops into items for sale

Additionally, in the Taking Care of Earth Domain (Domain 11), the informational texts include introducing the Earth, garbage, natural resources, recycling, composting, pollution, and types of water.

The topics will help Kindergarten students engage in group reading activities with a specific purpose and to deepen their understanding of history, social studies, and science.

The curriculum materials in Kindergarten 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. Questions consistently ask students to consider key ideas and details and build students' vocabulary. The Teacher's Guide contains many directions to tell or explain to students, as well as steps of teacher modeling for Kindergarten students in how to develop their own questions.

Some of the questions where students are to analyze key ideas and details come in Domain 2, Lesson 3 where students are asked, “What is the main topic or main idea of today’s lesson?” Growing Kindergarteners' understanding of main idea alongside their overall comprehension of a text is critical do developing further analysis skills.

In Domain 1, Lesson 2, students are taught about details when the teacher is expected to “explain to students that they should look for details about the main character in the nursery rhyme and others that they read and tell students that small details will often help us understand what the main character sees, thinks, and feels, as well as how he or she looks, sounds, and acts.” Over time students grow their ability to understand and consider new vocabulary independently. Other questions that show some evidence of students being required to analyze the text is in Domain 3, Lesson 9, when students are asked, “How do you know this story is fiction, or make-believe”.

The instructional materials reviewed for Kindergarten 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. Materials, especially in the Domain section, contain a sequenced set of text-dependent and text-specific set of questions and tasks that require students to build knowledge and integrate ideas across both individual and multiple texts.

In the majority of the Domains, the focus is an informational topic that builds from a basic understanding of the topic to a deeper understanding. For example, in Domain 2, students learn about the human body. They begin by learning about the five senses and how each responds to specific stimuli in the world around them. Then they learn about what happens if the senses of sight and hearing do not function well. This domain concludes with two biographies. Before the biographies are read, the students hear from the teacher about this genre as well as some background knowledge on Ray Charles. In addition, the CKLA program is designed so that not only does knowledge integrate across multiple texts within a single domain, but also across the grade. For example, in each grade students learn about the Earth. Students learn about taking care of the Earth in Domain 11 of kindergarten, the history of the earth in Grade 1, Domain 7, and the cycles in nature in in Grade 2, Domain 6.

Before beginning each new read aloud, students are provided background information on the topic such as in Domain 10, Lesson 3, “Explain that King George III ruled Great Britain, the American colonies, a long time ago.” In addition to this, students are reminded about previous texts in the domain, which helps them integrate ideas. For example, in this Domain 10, Lesson 3, after the teacher tells the students some new information to build background knowledge, the teacher reminds them that in the previous read aloud about the legend of the cherry tree they learned that George Washington was known for his honesty. In some of these before reading activities, students are asked questions about the text from the previous day such as in Domain 8, Lesson 10, when they are asked questions such as, “Why was the blacksmith important?” and “”How did the blacksmith bend metal?”

After each read aloud, there are a series of four to six text-dependent and text-specific questions that range from literal questions, to inferential questions, to evaluate questions. For example, in Domain 5, Lesson 5, an evaluative question is, “How are sheep like pigs? How are they different?” This requires the students to integrate their knowledge from this story to answer it correctly. Another example is in Domain 8, Lesson 3, a question is, “Describe some of the changes that happen from winter to spring.” Students have to integrate the ideas that they learned from the read aloud to answer this question.

The materials reviewed for Kindergarten meet the requirements that 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). There are culminating assessments at the end of both the Knowledge Domains and Skills Units, as well as mid-Domain assessments and opportunities for the teacher to identify what students have learned as they synthesize new knowledge and skills.

Some of the culminating activities allow students to demonstrate knowledge through multiple strands. For example, in Domain 1, a culminating activity is for students to to make a book retelling one of the fables from class. Students have to rely on listening skills, memory, and writing to complete this task. In Domain 9, students play a game where they go around around a circle stating things they would have found useful if they were on the Mayflower.

In Domain 12, students engage in a discussion about the commonalities of the presidents they read about, which integrates listening and speaking. For the Student Performance Task Assessment, students create a graphic organizer using academic vocabulary words from readings as well as integrating what they have learned from texts read aloud. Each of these tasks demonstrate knowledge gained from the Domain's texts.

The materials in kindergarten 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 one of the domains provide tiered vocabulary lists for each lesson being taught. These words are in the read alouds, or in some instances, in the “Introducing the Read Aloud” section. The lessons are designed for continuous use, discussion, and exposure to the words. The words are presented, discussed, modeled, repeated, reviewed, and used with contextual examples throughout the lessons. In each lesson there are four to five words such as iris, keap, protect, and pupil in Domain 2, Lesson 2. Another example is in Domain 10, Lesson 6, where the words are attractive, elves, poor, rich, andthrilled. In these lists, there is one bold-faced word that is explored at greater length in the Word Work section described below. In addition to words, some sayings are also taught such as, “take a deep breath” in Domain 2, Lesson 4.

Each lesson also contains a Word Work section. This section details a common routine that is modeled and used throughout the curriculum which allows for students' familiarity with speaking, listening, and understanding the terms being presented and that students can analyze and practice in context. Each “Word Work” has the students listen to the word, repeat the word, rephrase a sentence using the word, and identify examples of when they would use the word. This allows for students to demonstrate their understanding. After some of the Word Work Sections in each lesson there is a brief activity called, “Making Choices,” in which students identify the correct use of the vocabulary when presented with oral scenarios by the teacher. For example, In Domain 1, Lesson 4B, the word is frightened and the students need to decide if certain statements such as, "A spider sits down beside you," would frighten them.

The materials reviewed for Kindergarten meet the expectations of materials containing writing tasks and instruction which support students in building and communicating substantive understanding of topics and texts. The materials contain a year long, cohesive plan of writing instruction and tasks that support students across both the Knowledge Domains and the Skills Sections.

Lessons engaging Kindergarten students in growing their writing ability are evident over the course of the school year. In Skills, Unit 2, students focus on creating drawings to describe key concepts about the five senses. In Knowledge Domain 3, Lesson 6, students write their opinion about a hero. In Knowledge Domain 6, students use drawings to identify important characteristics of different tribes. In later domains, such as 8 and 10, students trade papers with a partner and suggest details that might be added to the drawings, which is part of the standards in Kindergarten. In Knowledge Domain 12, Lesson 3 students are divided into pairs and exchange papers. Students are asked to suggest at least one detail to be added to each picture in the sequence. Students are given time to incorporate feedback into their work and explore various digital tools to revise and/or publish their retellings of the legend.

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 Kindergarten 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. The structure of units focusing on one topic each does support enhanced student understanding and knowledge development around the unit materials. Kindergarten students engage with research in its component parts: listening, learning, and developing inquiry skills.

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 Kindergarten materials support students' growing research skills include, but are not limited to, the following examples:

• In Domain 3, an option during the assessment is for the teacher to pick appropriate online resources for students to further explore. Creating this cache of information is appropriate to delimit the amount of information Kindergarten students can navigate, and provides an opportunity for the teacher to closely gauge students' developing abilities to navigate multiple sources.
• In Domain 4, during a pausing point, teachers can choose to plant 4 seeds and give it different conditions of water and sun. The students make their predictions about which will grow the best; and observe. Guidance to support students' record-keeping and observation is present.
• In Domain 6, it is suggested that teachers may lead the class in a group research project to learn about a local Native American tribe; again, this is optional.
• In Domain 8, in an option in the culminating activities, students play the role of meteorologist and watch the weather report to determine if the predictions are true; they keep a weather report.
• In Domain 11, students can read additional trade books to review a concept.