7th Grade - Gateway 1

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 7 do not 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. With only 149 days of lessons accounted for, there need to be additional review days and summative assessment days as well as additional material other than unit tests to ensure sufficient instruction. Overall, the amount of content that is designated for this grade level is short of the amount of material needed to make it truly viable for one school year. According to the pacing guide, there is a suggested 149 days of lessons for 45-minute classes. There is guided practice and independent practice for each lesson. There is also a quiz and a formative assessment check for each module. All of this is included in the pacing guide.

A summative end of the unit test is not included in the pacing guide. Adding one day per unit would bring the total to 154 days.

There are many references in the teacher's guide to online resources that provide more practice opportunities, however it is not accessible in the basic program.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 7 partially meet the expectations for the material to be consistent with the progressions in the standards. The strongest point is that at the beginning of each module there is a section called "Unpacking the Standards." Although there is a page with progressions, there are no references to other grades' standards anywhere within the lessons. Overall, the materials in Go Math-Grade 7 to some extent identify the progressions from prior grades in the standards.

• In the beginning of each module there is a section called "Unpacking the Standards." This puts the standards into student-friendly language and provides examples of what students will be learning.
• This section aligns with the standards and then demonstrates that students will be working only within grade-level expectations.
• There were no references to other grades within the lessons.
• There is a page with progressions that shows Grade 6, 7 and 8 progressions.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 7 partially meet the expectation of giving all students extensive work with grade-level problems. Overall, the materials give students of varying abilities some, but not extensive work with grade-level problems.

• The lessons are broken down into five sections: Engage, Explore, Explain, Elaborate and Evaluate. There are also tips and ideas for differentiating and extending the material.
• The teacher edition includes references to online additional resources, including Math on the Spot, a video available by scanning the QR code in the student edition. Although the teacher edition does not contain all of these resources, access to some of them are available without any separate purchase.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 7 partially meet the expectation of relating grade-level concepts explicitly to prior knowledge from earlier grades. Overall, materials only generally relate grade level concepts to prior knowledge from earlier grades.

• There is a chart at the beginning of each unit and module that relates new content to previously taught content, either earlier in the grade or from previous grades.
• The charts have column headings labeled "Before this Unit," "In this Unit" and "After this Unit" and "Before this Module," "In this Module" and "After this Module" but do not specify standards.
• Students are assessed on prior knowledge at the beginning of each module.
• Unit 3, pages 167E-167F, gives the background resources for mathematics. On page 168, it restates what students should know before in this unit and after this unit.