1st Grade - Gateway 2

Materials reviewed for Grade 1 partially meet the expectations that texts are organized around a topic/topics to build students’ knowledge and their ability to read and comprehend complex texts proficiently. The units in Grade 1 materials are organized by broad, universal themes such as “Around the Neighborhood.” Each weekly lesson is centered around a knowledge-building topic that supports the unit theme. Unlike Kindergarten, most of the lesson topics are not connected to each other to build student knowledge and comprehension across the units.

Overall, the materials focus mostly on communications, citizenship, seasons, animals, and growing up. Within each weekly lesson, students should read multiple texts related to the lesson topic, but this not the case in some of the lessons in Grade 1. The read-alouds, anchor texts, big books, paired selections, fluency charts, vocabulary readers, and guided readers are aligned to the lesson topic in many but not all lessons.

Because the unit themes are broad, the lessons cover multiple topics in each unit. However, in several units the lessons are not cohesive and some are not aligned to the overall topic which interferes with student knowledge building. For example, Unit 2 and Unit 3 contain lessons and texts that are not connected. In Unit 3, the theme is “Nature Near and Far” but after several weeks on animals and seasons, the topic shifts to citizenship (following rules) and back to animals. Most weekly lessons are not linked to the next topic to extend student learning. Unit 6 is also lacking a connection. Within the theme of “Three Cheers for Us!” The unit is intended to wrap up the school year but it jumps from making art to weather, insects, and finally teamwork in sports. Though each is a valid lesson for grade 1, the texts are not fully connected within or across lessons for knowledge building.

Below is a sample of unit themes and lesson topics:

• Unit 1: Around the Neighborhood
  • Lesson Topics: Friendship, Weather, School, Neighborhood, At the Zoo
• Unit 2: Sharing Time
  • Lesson Topics: Traditional Stories, Animal Communication, Music, Writing, Feelings
• Unit 3: Nature Near and Far
  • Lesson Topics: Marine Habits, Jungle Animals, Seasons, Citizenship, Animals
• Unit 4: Exploring Together
  • Lesson Topics: Astronauts, Ways to Travel, Agriculture, History, Feelings
• Unit 5: Watch Us Grow
  • Lesson Topics: Gardens, Animals, Pets, Life Cycle, Learning About Our Country
• Unit 6: Three Cheers for Us!
  • Lesson Topics: Visual Arts, Trying Hard, Weather, Insects, Teamwork

The instructional materials for Grade 1 partially meet the expectations of materials providing guidance for supporting students’ academic vocabulary. The materials do not include a cohesive, year-long plan for students to interact and build key academic vocabulary words in and across texts. Vocabulary is taught within the context of each weekly lesson as well as within each text read. The unit lessons do not always connect from one week to the next therefore, vocabulary practice across an entire unit is limited to the skills practiced instead of the focus topic for building knowledge. Students spend time practicing for fluency, high-frequency words, and spelling but these are set apart from vocabulary instruction.

Each lesson has a box for “Words to Know” on the Focus Wall. There are usually around 6-8 words in this box and are high-frequency words and not vocabulary from the texts. Each weekly pacing guide instructs the teacher to introduce words from the core text through “Oral Vocabulary” on Day 1, and then “Apply Vocabulary Knowledge” as well as an “Oral Vocabulary Boost” on following days. Students also work with the high-frequency words throughout the week using Context Cards.. Students may also “Warm-up with Wordplay” that reviews the weekly words or engages students in speaking about the topic. On Day 5, students are introduced to “Domain Specific Vocabulary” which adds more to the weekly words found in the texts. In each of these vocabulary tasks, students answer questions or discuss the words in and out of the context of the week’s lesson topic. Though students practice reviewing the words, there are typically not opportunities provided within the writing and reading tasks to intentionally utilize the words. The vocabulary words are highlighted within the texts but generally do not overlap across texts and teachers are not prompted within the text to identify or engage with the highlighted words.

Vocabulary is generally introduced with Context Cards that students can view examples of how the word is used in real-life settings. The cards have images and sentences that offer a definition and example of the word. These are not based in the context of the texts the students will read. Lessons are also accompanied by a Vocabulary Reader that is aligned to the week's topic for most lessons. Each vocabulary reader extends a language skill from the prior text and include tasks in which students practice using language or vocabulary; however, this vocabulary is not typically aligned to the vocabulary pulled from the core texts.

This is an example of vocabulary instruction for a weekly lesson. Though numerous vocabulary words are taught each day there is not a cohesive plan for interacting with and utilizing words across the week or into other lessons. The words are also not grouped or selected for instructional reasons beyond their appearance in a text or use in a discussion.

Unit 4: Lesson 17:Ways to Travel

• Vocabulary Strategy: Define words
• High Frequency Words: about, by, car, could, don’t, maybe, sure, there
• Spelling: Words with long -e
• Vocabulary Reader: Going to School Level E (focuses on the different modes of transportation for students)
• Day 1: Oral Vocabulary: Revisit adventure, worried, try, decisions
• Day 1: Introduce Oral Vocabulary Words from the Read-Aloud Text: shelter, delighted, complain, pleaded, lonely, horizon. Students follow an Oral Vocabulary instructional routine to learn the words. Then, they respond to questions about the text or outside context using the words. For example, “Do you usually brush your teeth in the morning?”
• Day 1: Introduce Words to Know: about, by, car, could, don’t, maybe, sure, there. Students practice using these words using Context Cards.
• Day 2: Warm Up with Wordplay: Students discuss how the words drive, sail, and fly are connected.
• Day 2: Daily Vocabulary Boost: Students review words from the weekly vocabulary list:shelter, delighted, complain, pleaded, lonely, horizon Students also hear four literature words: compare, contrast, dialogue, and quotation marks.
• Day 3: Warm Up with Wordplay: Students brainstorm words that deal with airplanes.
• Day 3: Daily Vocabulary Boost: Students review words from the weekly vocabulary list.
• Day 3: Enrich Vocabulary: Students focus on ambitious, arrive, and soar. Students connect these word meanings to other words like parachute, travel, island, engine, and desert.
• Day 4: Warm Up with Wordplay: Students list words that rhyme with bean.
• Day 4: Vocabulary strategies: Define Words- Students learn the meaning of category and characteristics to understand how to define words. Students practice with picture cards putting animals into categories.
• Day 5: Domain Specific Vocabulary: Students use picture cards to focus on travel terms for animals: railroad, pilot, motion They orally place these words in sentences and then practice making their own sentences.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 1 partially meet expectations for materials containing a year long, cohesive plan of writing instruction and tasks which support students in building and communicating substantive understanding of topics and texts. Materials are not built around topics. Materials are organized around writing types to build students’ writing ability to demonstrate proficiency at grade level at the end of the school year. The majority of writing instruction and tasks are not text-specific nor do they require a substantive understanding of topics. For example, in Unit 3, Lesson 12, students read several texts about jungle animals, but the writing tasks for the week prepare students to write instructions about something that they can do well. While the development of Informative Writing is cohesive throughout Unit 2 and 3, the majority of tasks do not demonstrate student knowledge or understanding of the texts and topics.

Daily lessons have a writing task that ranges from building complete sentences to writing narrative, informative, and persuasive paragraphs. The first three days of the lesson typically follow shared and guided writing in which the class composes together. Days four or five of the week focus more on independent writing practice though this is supported by the materials such as the Writer’s Handbook, sentence starters, or group discussion. Each week generally focuses on one type of writing or task and each day builds student capacity to complete the independent task. Each of the three writing types are the focus of two units throughout the year.

The following are examples of the different writing types that build across the unit:.

• Unit 1, Narrative Writing- reviewing writing labels, captions, and sentences, and proofreading
• Unit 2, Informative Writing- building descriptive sentences, poetry, thank-you notes, and descriptive writing following the full writing process
• Unit 3, Informative Writing- writing informative sentences, instructions, and an explanatory report.
• Unit 4, Narrative Writing- writing about self, composing a friendly letter and a personal narrative
• Unit 5, Narrative Writing- crafting story sentences based to develop a fictional story that is not personal
• Unit 6, Opinion Writing- writing opinion sentences to build an opinion paragraph

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 1 partially meet expectations for 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. Daily and weekly writing tasks require students to brainstorm events or things that are familiar to them and discuss these with peers. In Unit 5, students write a report after walking through the writing process; however, this report is based on their opinion of a book they read in class and not based on gathering information from sources or texts.

Some lessons are accompanied by a “Research and Media Literacy” section, usually at the end of the weekly lesson. Grade 1 students have some opportunities to practice learning the components necessary to think critically and practice research skills; however, at times these tasks are not related to the writing type, text or topic of the lesson. There is limited guidance for teachers and students on how to conduct these tasks and many times the research must be completed by the teacher using the Internet before students can engage in the work. These tasks may loosely connect to a text or topic, but they are not integrated into the daily routines of student learning and reading.

In Unit 5, an example of a “Research and Media Literacy” task is in Lesson 22 under the topic “Life Cycle.” This task asks students to think what they learned about the life cycle of a an apple tree from their reading. Students then brainstorm a plant or animal to research about the life cycle. The Teacher’s Edition instructs teachers to help students find books or appropriate websites for them to take notes on their research. There are no recommended grade appropriate sources or links provided and students do not have a guided format for gathering the information. At this point in the school year, for Grade 1, this task would be very demanding without heavy scaffolding. The following week students are to write and illustrate what they learned about that plant or animal while the weekly lesson has moved to “Learning About Our Country.”

The materials for Grade 1 partially meet the expectations for materials providing a design, including accountability, for how students will regularly engage in a volume of independent reading either in or outside of class.

Students complete independent reading on Day 3 of every lesson. Students are to go back and reread portions of the anchor text and complete pages in their Reader’s Notebook. Students then complete self-selected reading but they do not record their selections or progress as a type of accountability.

Teachers are provided limited instruction on how to support reader independence. The Teacher Edition gives the guidance, “Five Finger Rule, Tell children that when they choose books to read, they should make sure the book is not too easy or too hard. Teach them the Five Finger Rule for choosing a “just right” book.Choose a book that you like, and read the first page or two. Put up one finger for every word you don’t know. If five of your fingers go up while reading, Choose another book.If only two or three fingers go up, you’ve found a “just right” book.”