3rd Grade - Gateway 1
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Focus & Coherence
Gateway 1 - Partially Meets Expectations | 78% |
|---|---|
Criterion 1.1: Focus | 2 / 2 |
Criterion 1.2: Coherence | 4 / 4 |
Criterion 1.3: Coherence | 5 / 8 |
The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 3 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 study that is viable for a school year, students are not always 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 3 Everyday Mathematics materials meet the expectations for not assessing topics before the grade level in which they should be introduced. Future grade-level topics are assessed; however, those assessments could be removed without affecting the progression of learning for students. The number of above grade-level assessments is limited and could easily be removed by the teacher.
Indicator 1a
The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 1 meet expectations for assessment because above grade-level assessment items could be modified or omitted without a significant impact on the underlying structure of the instructional materials.The program allows for a Beginning-of-Year, Mid-year, End-of-Year, and Unit Assessments which assess the Grade 3 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 143-153 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 on page 240 of lesson 3-3, the Assessment Check-In focuses on 3.NBT.2; this Check-In addresses the partial sums from second grade and extends the work into Grade 3.
Students are exposed to different units of measure within one problem on the Unit 8 Cumulative Assessment but remain on grade level since the accompanying picture shows the same units throughout.
The Unit Assessments, the End of the Year Assessment, and some of the Assessment Check-Ins do have a few off, grade-level assessments included. The following off, grade-level content are assessed in the Grade 3 Materials:
- On the End of the Year Assessment, question 7 assesses 5.OA.A.1; students are asked to use parentheses to solve an equation. Question 13b assesses 4.NF.A.2; students are asked to compare two different fractions with different denominators and different numerators.
- In Unit 6, on the end of the unit assessment, questions 6, 7 and 9 ask students to use parentheses to solve an equation, 5.OA.A.1. Additionally, the unit self-assessment for students has them self-assessing the use of parentheses.
- In Unit 8, on the end of the unit assessment, question 6 asks students to find factors, 4.OA.B.4.
Overall, most unit assessment items are on a Grade 3 level. All of the off, grade-level assessments could be removed by the teacher without affecting the sequence of learning for students. There are no scoring rubrics provided for the educators; however, all assessments do provide answer keys.
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 3 Everyday Mathematics materials do meet expectations for devoting the large majority of class time to the major work of the grade level. The Grade 3 Everyday Mathematics engages students in the major work of the grade approxiamately 69 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 3 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 3.OA and 3.NF and clusters 3.MD.A and 3.MD.C.
The Grade 3 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 nine units with approximately 8-13 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 5-10 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 64 lessons out of the 99 are focused on the major work. This represents approximately 65 percent of the lessons. Additionally, another 4 lessons, or 4 percent, are supporting work which truly supported the major work of the grade bringing the time spent on major work to approximately 69 percent.
- Fourteen lessons out of the 99 are focused on the supporting work of the grade. This work was treated separately from the major work of the grade.
- Sixteen lessons out of the 99 are focused on off grade-level work. For example, lesson 1-3 is focused on 2.MD.C.7 (tell and write time to the nearest 5 minutes), and lesson 1-7 is focused on 2.MD.D.10, (draw a bar graph with a single scaled unit). Lesson 3-7 is focused on 2.G.A.2 (partition a rectangle into rows and columns). Lesson 4-4 is focused on 2.G.A.1 (recognize and draw shapes having specified attributes). Lessons 6-8, 6-9, 6-10 and 6-11 all focus on 5.OA.A.1 (use parentheses in numerical expressions and evaluate the expressions). Lessons 8-3 and 8-5 focus on 4.OA.B.4 (find all factors for a whole number). Lesson 8-6 focuses on 4.OA.A.3 (solve multistep word problems posed with whole numbers and have whole-number answers using the four operations, including problems in which remainders must be interpreted). Lesson 9-5 focuses on 4.NBT.B.5 (multiply a whole number of up to four digits by a one-digit whole number).
- One lesson out of the 99 focuses on other content. This lesson is focused on using the student reference book.
Criterion 1.3: Coherence
Coherence: Each grade's instructional materials are coherent and consistent with the Standards.
The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 3 partially 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 geometry 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 31-32 weeks of lessons and assessments. Content from prior and future grades is not clearly identified or connected to grade-level work, and students are not always given extensive work with grade-level problems. Material related to prior and future grade-level content is not clearly identified or related to grade-level work. These instructional materials are shaped by the cluster headings in the standards; however, only surface-level connections are made between domains. Overall, the Grade 3 materials partially 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 3 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.
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:
- In Exploration C in Lesson 3-7, supporting standard 3.G.2 enhances work with 3.MD.5, 3.MD.5.A, 3.MD.5.B, 3.MD.6, 3.MD.7, and 3.MD.7.A. This exploration helps to connect student work with partitioning shapes into parts with equal areas to work with area.
- In Lesson 5-3, supporting standard 3.G.2 enhances work with 3.NF.A. This lessons allows students to use shapes partitioned into equal areas to develop understanding of fractions as numbers.
At times, supporting work does not enhance and support the major work of the grade. 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 units and lessons without connections between supporting and major work include the following:
- In Unit 1, supporting standards 3.NBT.1, 3.NBT.2 and 3.MD.3 are the focus of four lessons while standards 3.MD.1, 3.MD.2, 3.OA.1, 3.OA.2, 3.OA.3, 3.OA.6, 3.OA.7 and 3.NF.1, all major work, are the focus of the remaining lessons in Unit 1.
- Unit 1, Lesson 3 includes 3.NBT.2, 3.MD.1, 3.MD.4 and 3.G.1. The "Using Mathematical Tools" math journal addresses each of these standards individually, and there is no explicit connection made for either the teacher or the student between the supporting and major work.
- The "Finding Equivalent Names" activity in Lesson 3-13 addresses 3.OA.7, major work, and 3.NBT.2, supporting work. This activity, however, focuses more on equivalence than a relationship between addition and subtraction and multiplication and division. The "Frames and Arrows" Math Masters worksheet in the same lesson has students either adding, subtracting, or multiplying to create a number pattern; again, the work with addition and subtraction is not used to enhance the work with multiplication.
- Lessons 4-6, 4-7, 4-10 and 4-11 are focused on supporting cluster 3.MD.D.
- Lessons 4-4, 4-5, 4-12 and 6-5 focus on supporting cluster 3.G.A.
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 3 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 (98 lessons total) and another 18 days allowed for assessment, making 125 days of materials. According to the Teacher Guide on p.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 31 to 32 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 3 partially meet the expectation for being consistent with the progressions in the standards. Content from prior and future 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 and future grade-level content is not clearly identified or related to grade-level work. The third grade materials have some instances where prior and future grade-level content is present and not identified as such. Lessons with prior and future grade-level content include the following:
- Lesson 1-3, which is focused on 2.MD.C.7, tells and writes time to the nearest 5 minutes, yet it is labeled with 3.MD.A.
- Lesson 4-4 is focused on 2.G.A.1, recognizing and drawing shapes having specified attributes, yet it is labeled with 3.G.1.
- Lessons 8-3 and 8-5 focus on 4.OA.B.4, finding all factors for a whole number.
- Lesson 8-6 focuses on 4.OA.A.3, solving multistep word problems posed with whole numbers and having whole-number answers using the four operations, including problems in which remainders must be interpreted.
The content does not always meet the full depth of standards. This mainly occurs because of a lack of lessons addressing the full depth. For example, there are fifteen lessons which address 3.OA.1; however, they only ever specifically address multiplication of 0,1, 2, 5, and 10.
Everyday Mathematics Grade 3 materials provide some examples of extensive work with grade-level standards. For example, the instructional materials do not provide extensive work with the following standards:
- 3.OA.A.1: Lesson 1-10 develops multiplication for 2, 5 and 10, and Lesson 2-6 develops multiplication for 0 and 1. The remaining 13 lessons present strategies for multiplication; however, multiplication for 3, 4, 6, 7 and 8 are never addressed specifically.
- 3.OA.B.5: There are 13 lessons aligned to this standard; however, only one lesson has students understanding the relationship between multiplication and division, lesson 6-3. Cluster heading 3.OA.B “Understand the properties of operations and the relationship between multiplication and division.”
- 3.OA.C.8: There are 18 lessons aligned to this standard; however, only four lessons, 2-4, 2-5, 3-2 and 5-10, have students doing two-step problems within the focus section of the lesson. There are other places including practice pages and math boxes where students are practicing.
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 based on the spiral trace 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 3 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 there are 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 2-7, "Multiplication Arrays," is shaped by 3.OA.A.
- Lesson 3-2, "Estimating Costs," is shaped by 3.NBT.A.
- Lesson 5-3, "Equivalent Fractions," is shaped by 3.NF.A.
- Lesson 7-10, "Justifying Fraction Comparisons," is shaped by 3.NF.A.
While the materials have many instances where two or more domains are connected, often the connections are only surface-level connections. For example, lesson 7-4 shows a connections between 3.NF.1, 3.NF.3, 3.NF.3.A, 3.NF.3.B, 3.NF.3.C, 3.NF.3.D, and 3.G.2. However, the lesson is divided into parts, and the parts only truly address one standard at a time.