6th Grade - Gateway 1
Back to 6th Grade Overview
Note on review tool versions
See the series overview page to confirm the review tool version used to create this report.
- Our current review tool version is 2.0. Learn more
- Reports conducted using earlier review tools (v1.0 and v1.5) contain valuable insights but may not fully align with our current instructional priorities. Read our guide to using earlier reports and review tools
Loading navigation...
Focus & Coherence
Gateway 1 - Partially Meets Expectations | 71% |
|---|---|
Criterion 1.1: Focus | 2 / 2 |
Criterion 1.2: Coherence | 4 / 4 |
Criterion 1.3: Coherence | 4 / 8 |
The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 6 Everyday Mathematics partially meet the expectations for Gateway 1. Future grade level standards are not assessed, and the materials devote a majority of the time to the major work of the grade. At times the instructional materials connect supporting work with the major work of the grade, but often the materials do not. Although the materials provide a full program of student that is viable for a school year, students are not given extensive work with grade-level problems. Connections between grade levels and domains are missing. Overall, the instructional materials meet the expectations for focusing on the major work of the grade, but the materials are not always consistent and coherent with the standards.
Criterion 1.1: Focus
The Grade 6 Everyday Mathematics materials meet the expectations for not assessing topics before the grade level in which they should be introduced. All items on Unit assessments are focused on Grade 6 standards.
Indicator 1a
The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 6 meet the expectations for focus within assessment. Overall, the instructional material does not assess content from future grades within the summative assessment sections of each unit.
The program allows for a Beginning-of-Year, Mid-year, End-of-Year Assessment, and Unit Assessments which assess the Grade 6 standards. There are also eight unit assessments/progress checks. The unit assessments/progress checks have portions for Self Assessment, Unit Assessment, Open Response Assessment (odd numbered units), Cumulative Assessment (even numbered units), and a Challenge. These assessments can be found in the Assessment Handbook. The Individual Profile of Progress for tracking and class progress are present in both paper (pages 110-121 in the Assessment Handbook) and digital formats. Most lessons have an Assessment Check-in that can be used as either formative or summative assessment as stated in the implementation guide.
Assessment Check-Ins are part of most lessons and mostly assess grade level content. For example, in the teacher guide, page 168, lesson 2-8, the Assessment Check-In focuses on 6.NS.1, dividing fractions.
All unit assessment items are on Grade 6 level. There are no scoring rubrics provided for the educators; however, all assessments do provide answer keys. Assessments 1-3 include problems involving mode, which is not specifically required by 6.SP.5.C.
Criterion 1.2: Coherence
Students and teachers using the materials as designed devote the large majority of class time in each grade K-8 to the major work of the grade.
The Grade 6 Everyday Mathematics materials do meet expectations for devoting the large majority of class time to the major work of the grade level. The Sixth Grade Everyday Mathematics engages students in the major work of the grade about 73 percent of the time.
Indicator 1b
Instructional material spends the majority of class time on the major cluster of each grade.
The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 6 meet the expectations for focus by spending the majority of the time on the major clusters of the grade. This includes all the clusters in 6.RP and 6.EE and clusters 6.NS.A and 6.NS.C.
The Grade 6 materials do spend the majority of class time on the major clusters of the grade. Work was not calculated by units since the units spiral and are not clustered by groups of standards. There are eight units with approximately 11-14 lessons per unit. Assessment days were not included in these calculations. Additionally, each unit has a 2-day open response lesson; the Open Response Lessons were counted as one lesson. At the lesson level, the lessons are divided into Warm Up, Focus, and Practice. Each day consists of approximately 5 minutes on Warm Up, 30-45 minutes of a Focus, and 15-25 minutes of practice. To determine the amount of time on major work, the standards covered in the focus lessons were considered since that is where direct instruction takes place and the majority of the lesson takes place during this time.
- Approximately seventy-three lessons out of the 99 are focused on the major work. This represents approximately 73 percent of the lessons.
- In Unit 1, five out of fourteen lessons focus on major work.
- In Unit 3, four out of fourteen lessons focus on major work.
- In Unit 5, five out of twelve lessons focus on major work.
- All other units are focused on major work of the grade.
Criterion 1.3: Coherence
Coherence: Each grade's instructional materials are coherent and consistent with the Standards.
The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 6 do not meet the expectations for coherence. At times the instructional materials use supporting content as a way to continue working with the major work of the grade, but often the materials do not. For example, connections between statistics and probability and major work of the grade are missed. The materials include a full program of study that is viable content for a school year, including approximately 30-31 weeks of lessons and assessment. All students are not given extensive work on grade-level problems. Prior grade-level content is not consistently identified, and materials do not explicitly connect grade level concepts to prior knowledge from earlier grades. These instructional materials are shaped by the cluster headings in the standards; however, only surface level connections are made between domains. Overall, the Grade 6 materials do not support coherence and are not consistent with the progressions in the standards.
Indicator 1c
Supporting content enhances focus and coherence simultaneously by engaging students in the major work of the grade.
The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 6 partially meet expectations that supporting content enhances focus and coherence by engaging students in the major work of the grade. In some cases, the supporting work enhances and supports the major work of the grade level, and in others, it does not.
Units 6-8 are focused entirely on major work, so no specific opportunities to use supporting content to enhance focus and coherence by engaging students in the major work of the grade are found.
At times supporting content does enhance focus and coherence by engaging students in the major work of the grade. Examples of the connections between supporting work and major work include the following:
- Lesson 4-1 connects supporting standard 6.NS.4 with 6.EE.1 and 6.EE.6, both major work of the grade.
- Lesson 5-1 connects supporting standard 6.G.3 and 6.NS.6, 6.NS.6.B, 6.NS.6.C, and 6.NS.8, major work of the grade.
- Lesson 5-4 connects supporting standards 6.NS.3 and 6.G.1 with 6.EE.2 and 6.EE.2.C, major work of the grade.
Supporting work is found in Units 1-5. At times standards listed at the beginning of each unit are logically connected to each other; however, when the specific work of the unit and lessons is examined, some connections are missed or not specifically noted for teacher or students. Also, many lessons address supporting work in isolation from major work of the grade. Examples of lessons without connections between supporting and major work include the following:
- Many of the lessons in Unit 1 focus on statistics and probability. These lessons are not truly connected to major work of the grade. Although some lesson activities do include both major and supporting standards, there are missed connections between the listed standards. For example, in Lesson 1-7 the Math Masters worksheet “Exploring Bar Graphs and Histograms” is aligned to 6.EE.5, 6.SP.4, 6.SP.5, and 6.SP.5.B. Although both major and supporting work are addressed, the major work is the focus of the last three problems of the worksheet disconnected from the supporting work.
- Lesson 3-6 is focused on long division with decimals. The Math Masters worksheet “Decimal Division” is aligned to 6.NS.3, 6.NS.4, and 6.EE.7. Although the worksheet claims to connect the supporting work to major work of writing and solving equations of the form x+p=q or px=q, the worksheet does not require students to write and solve equations of this type. The provided sample answers do not show equations of this type.
- Lessons 3-12, 3-13, and 3-14 focus on box plots and data representations. These lessons are not truly connected to major work of the grade. Although some lesson activities do include both major and supporting standards, there are missed connections between the listed standards. For example, in lesson 3-12 the Math Masters worksheet “Box Plots” is aligned to 6.RP.3, 6.RP.3.C, 6.SP.5, and 6.SP.5.C. Although both major and supporting work are addressed, the major work is the focus of the last three problems of the worksheet disconnected from the supporting work.
Indicator 1d
The amount of content designated for one grade level is viable for one school year in order to foster coherence between grades.
The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 6 meet the expectations for the amount of content designated for one grade level being viable for one school year in order to foster coherence between grades. The suggested pacing includes 107 days of lessons (99 lessons total) and another 16 days allowed for assessment, making 123 days of materials. According to the Teacher Guide on page xxxvi, each lesson is expected to last between 60-75 minutes. The online curriculum states to use Fridays as a Flex Day for games and intervention work. With Fridays being included as Flex Days, this curriculum allows for approximately 30 to 31 weeks of instruction.
Indicator 1e
Materials are consistent with the progressions in the Standards i. Materials develop according to the grade-by-grade progressions in the Standards. If there is content from prior or future grades, that content is clearly identified and related to grade-level work ii. Materials give all students extensive work with grade-level problems iii. Materials relate grade level concepts explicitly to prior knowledge from earlier grades.
The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 6 are not consistent with the progressions in the standards. Content from prior grades is not clearly identified or connected to grade-level work, and students are not given extensive work with grade-level problems.
Material related to prior grade level content is not clearly identified or related to grade level work. The Grade 6 materials have two instances where prior grade-level content is present and not identified as such. The lessons are taught as if this is the first introduction to the content. Lesson 1-11, identified as 6.NS, focuses on equivalent fractions at the Grade 4 level, 4.NF.A.1. Lesson 1-12, identified as 6.NS, focuses on equivalent fractions at the Grade 5 level, 5.NF.A.1.
The content does not always meet the full depth of standards. This mainly occurs because of a lack of lessons addressing the full depth of standards. For example, there are eight lessons listed for 6.SP.A.2; however, only three lessons actually align to the full depth of the standard, lessons 1-8, 3-12, and 3-13. The other cited lessons only have students finding central measures in a very procedural manner without looking at the overall shape to bring context. There are 27 lessons listed for 6.RP.A.3; however, only eight lessons align to the full depth of the standard. There are nine lessons listed for 6.NS.B.3; however, only six lessons align to the standard.
Everyday Mathematics Grade 6 materials do not provide extensive work with grade level standards. For example, the instructional materials do not provide extensive work with the following standards:
- 6.NS.A.1: Only four lessons align to this standard, one of which is multiplication.
- 6.NS.C.5: Only seven lessons align to this standard.
- 6.NS.C.6.B: While there are four lessons aligned to this standard, none of the lessons use reflection across one or both axes.
In lessons where prior knowledge is needed, the instructional materials do not state that prior knowledge is being used. When future grade level concepts are introduced, there is no mention that the concept will be used in future grades. If the teacher uses the spiral trace at the beginning of the lesson or unit, the teacher will know where prior knowledge is used and when the student will use the skill/concept again in the future. The spiral tracker is listed by lessons and not connecting standards. At the beginning of each unit the spiral trace provides an explanation of what will occur by the end of the unit, but the spiral trace does not explain any further and does not connect to the next standard.
Indicator 1f
Materials foster coherence through connections at a single grade, where appropriate and required by the Standards i. Materials include learning objectives that are visibly shaped by CCSSM cluster headings. ii. Materials include problems and activities that serve to connect two or more clusters in a domain, or two or more domains in a grade, in cases where these connections are natural and important.
The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 6 partially meet the expectations for fostering coherence through connections at a single grade, where appropriate and when the standards require. Overall, materials include learning objectives that are visibly shaped by CCSSM cluster headings, but missed opportunities to provide problems and activities that connect two or more clusters in a domain or two or more domains when these connections are natural and important.
Instructional materials shaped by cluster headings include the following examples:
- Lesson 1-11, "Building a Number Line Using Fraction Strips," is shaped by 6.NS.C.
- Lesson 3-10, "Percents as Ratios," is shaped by 6.RP.A.
- Lesson 5-12, "Area versus Volume," is shaped by 6.G.A.
- The "Solving Problems with Substitution" portion of the Focus of Lesson 6-1 is shaped by 6.EE.B.
While the materials have many instances where two or more domains are connected, often the connections are only surface level connections. For example, Lesson 2-2 shows connections between 6.NS.3, 6.NS.4, 6.SP.1, 6.SP.2, 6.SP.5, 6.SP.5.B and 6.SP.5.C, and 5.NF.1 However, the lesson is divided into parts, and the parts only truly address one standard at a time.