4th Grade - Gateway 1

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 4 partially meet the expectations of indicator 1a. Although many texts are excerpts, a good deal of the literary texts are published texts which provide opportunities for students to engage in especially careful reading, are on topics of interest to Grade 4 students, and include rich, captivating language. Most of the informational texts were written for the series and are not works published outside the program, and many of these are brief and lack content-area vocabulary and well-crafted language.

The anchor texts for Grade 4 include texts created by award-winning authors and illustrators, such as Kate DiCamillo, Kathleen Krull, Laurence Yep, and Pam Muñoz Ryan, and cover topics of interest to Grade 4 students in a variety of genres, including poetry, realistic fiction, biographies, and historical fiction. Some examples of quality texts include but are not limited to:

• Unit 1, Lesson 1, Because of Winn-Dixie by Kate DiCamillo - This excerpt contains a funny character, Winn-Dixie, a dog, which is engaging for Grade 4 students. The text contains intriguing dialogue.
• Unit 2, Lesson 8, Me and Uncle Romie by Claire Hartfield and Jerome Lagarrigue - This excerpt contains intricate, detailed paintings as illustrations and tackles common experiences such as leaving home.
• Unit 3, Lesson 13, Antarctic Journal: Four Months at the Bottom of the World by Jennifer Owings Dewey - This informational text has an engaging topic, penguins, for Grade 4 students. The text contains attractive photos with concise captions.
• Unit 4, Lesson 19, Harvesting Hope: A Story of Cesar Chavez by Kathleen Krull - This excerpt tells the biography of Cesar Chavez. The text contains descriptive verbs such as “seeped,” “vanished,” and “yanking.” The illustrations are colorful and detailed.
• Unit 5, Lesson 21, The World According to Humphrey by Betty G. Birney - This excerpt is a relatable tale for Grade 4 students since it is about a class pet. The author uses a unique perspective, which is from the hamster’s point-of-view.
• Unit 6, Lesson 26,“The Spider” by Jack Prelutsky - This poem contains academic language and a mystery for students to figure out.

While there are a variety of topics and a range of student interests addressed throughout the year, many texts that have been created for the series lack engaging text for Grade 4 students. Examples include but are not limited to:

• In Unit 2, Lesson 6,The History of Radio by Vivian Fernandez is an informational text with long paragraphs and tackles a non-relatable topic for Grade 4 students in just three pages.
• In Unit 2, Lesson 8, Sidewalk Artists by Sam Rabe is a reader’s theater text with few opportunities to read and speak because the script is short. Much of the pages are taken up by images and illustrations.
• In Unit 4, Lesson 17, Knowing Noses by Ellen Gold is a short text that contains large pictures, which take up space for quality text. The text uses repetitive sentence starters such as “they.” The pictures do not have captions.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 4 partially meet the expectation of supporting students’ increasing literacy skills over the course of the school year. While many anchor texts and paired selections typically fall within the grade band, several texts fall outside of the grade band. Furthermore the scaffolding of each text for reader and task considerations is similar and comparable for each text regardless of complexity and demands of each text. This may not ensure students are supported to access and comprehend complex grade-level texts independently at the end of the year.

As the year progresses, students read texts at a variety of complexity levels. For each text, the routine for reading and analyzing the text is similar and does not change based on text complexity. Examples of the similar and comparable scaffolding for each text regardless of complexity include but are not limited to:

• In Unit 1, Lesson 2, students read one of the most complex anchor texts (My Brother Martin: A Sister Remembers Growing Up with the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr) in the materials. By reading such a complex text early in the school year, students are not provided the opportunity to have scaffolded support to build to the reading of the complex text. For the reader and task considerations, the teacher is directed to have students read to find out how segregation affected Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. To foster independence, the teacher is directed to have partners write questions on self-stick notes as they read.
• In Unit 2, Lesson 10, students read Jose! Born to Dance, which is a less complex text. For the reader and task considerations, the teacher is directed to have students read to find out how Jose became a dancer. To foster independence, as students read in small groups, students take turns posing questions about the text. Both texts are allotted three days of instruction with day 1 for thinking through the text. Day 2 is for analyzing the text. Day 3 is for independent reading of the text and students complete two pages of the Reader’s Notebook.
• In Unit 5, Lesson 25, students read Isaac Asimov, The Complete Stories: The Fun They Had, which is a text with exceedingly complex text qualitative text features. During that same week, students read the paired selection, Toys! Amazing Stories Behind Some Great Inventions, which has a high Lexile (1110) and exceedingly complex qualitative text features. These complex texts are read in one week. The following week, the texts (The Girl Who Loved Spiders with 500 Lexile and moderately to slightly complex qualitative features and Web Wise with 790 Lexile and moderately to slightly complex qualitative features) drop in complexity significantly, yet a week is allotted to reading and analyzing those texts.

For the Grade 4 anchor and paired selections, the scaffolding across texts remains constant and the same level of support is recommended across the units. This may not support students' abilities to access increasingly rigorous text over the course of the school year.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 4 partially meet the expectations for text dependent questions, tasks, and assignments requiring students to engage directly with the text and to draw on textual evidence to support what is explicit as well as valid inferences. Though there are text dependent questions to accompany each anchor and supporting text, students are seldom asked to draw their own conclusions or inferences. Inferences are often given with students having to find evidence to support the already stated inference. The text dependent questions provided are not adequate to support students mastering of this skill.

Students are asked text-dependent questions throughout the daily lessons. These questions are included in the Teacher Read Aloud, Read the Anchor Text, Guided Retelling, Dig Deeper second read of the anchor text, Your Turn discussion, Independent Reading Reader’s Guide, Connect to the Topic, Compare Texts, and Small Group Instruction. Answering text-dependent questions is modeled throughout instruction.

Examples of text-dependent questions found throughout the units include but are not limited to:

• In Unit 2, Lesson 9, students are asked, “How does the photograph of the thread snake add to your understanding of the first two sentences on p. 278? The photo shows that the threadsnake is so small and harmless that it can be held in your hand.”
• In Unit 3, Lesson 14, students are asked, “What does the author compare ants to? An elephant, a dump truck, and people What do these comparisons tell you about ants? Ants are strong, numerous, and live in social groups and solve problems.”
• In Unit 6, Lesson 27, students are asked What two problems have been caused by the introduction of African clawed frogs into new habitats? African clawed frogs eat other frogs, and they carry a fungus that is deadly to other amphibians. Which is the more serious problem? The fungus that the African clawed frogs carry is more serious because it can wipe out an entire population of frogs.

Examples of text-dependent questions found that illustrate how inferences are often given with students having to find evidence to support the already stated inference include but are not limited to:

• In Unit 1, Lesson 2, students are asked, “Based on what the author says on this page, do you think the King children were close to one another? Yes. What details in the selection lead you to believe this? She says they grew together like three peas in a pod.”
• In Unit 4, Lesson 16, students are asked, “What evidence have you seen so far that Charlotte has great determination? Charlotte did not give up on relearning to drive a stagecoach. She worked step by step toward her goal. She learned to use her sense of hearing, and she memorized rocks and trees on the route so she wouldn’t run into them.”
• In Unit 5, Lesson 22, students are asked, “What details on Student Book p. 657 support the idea that Esther was a resourceful and independent young woman? Esther watched her mother sew and decided to teach herself to do that. Eventually she became so good at sewing that she made fancy dresses for society ladies and planned to open a millinery shop.”

Examples of text-dependent tasks and assignments found throughout the units include but are not limited to:

• In Unit 1, Lesson 4, the Reader’s Notebook directs students to write a description using the text The Power of W.O.W! to help an actress understand the character Ileana better.
• In Unit 3, Lesson 11 students create a chart to describe text and graphic features of the text Hurricanes.
• In Unit 5, Lesson 24, students compare two nonfiction texts when they are asked to make a Venn diagram to compare and contrast “Owen and Mzee” and “Sea Sanctuary.”
• In Unit 6, Lesson 29, the Reader’s Notebook directs students to write a public service announcement after reading Save Timber Woods which lists the pros and cons of cutting down Timber Woods using evidence from the text.

There are also “Text to Self” and “Text to World” questions that are not always text-dependent but relate to the theme or topic of the text being read. In Unit 3, lesson 15 after reading the text “Ecology for Kids,” students are asked to make a list of five things they can do to help protect the environment. Students are also asked to research and chart rainfall in their community or state.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 4 partially meet the criteria for providing frequent opportunities and protocols for evidence-based discussions that encourage the modeling and use of academic vocabulary and syntax. Opportunities and protocols for discussion are provided but are often not evidence-based and do not encourage the modeling and use of academic vocabulary and syntax. There is not a year-long approach available to developing skills over the course of they year. There is minimal teacher direction given to support teachers in conducting evidence-based discussions that model the use of academic vocabulary and syntax.

There are both evidence-based and non evidence-based discussions and modeling throughout materials. The anchor text and supporting texts provide text-based questions and sample answers for discussion, but do not give protocol or direction for conducting the discussions. Academic vocabulary is introduced at the beginning of each lesson through Vocabulary in Context Cards. Students participate in Talk About Over activities with the cards. These words are highlighted in the lessons texts and are also revisited in the Vocabulary Reader.

Examples of evidence-based discussions and modeling include but are not limited to:

Unit 1, Lesson 5, Teacher Think Aloud

• The teacher models discussion by stating, “Stormy’s thoughts about being different and his dislike of attention help me infer why he spends so much time in the sea. I know that people who feel different often try to stay away from other people. I predict that Stormy will continue to spend time in the ocean.”

Unit 2, Lesson 6, Classroom Conversation

• Teachers are directed to, “Have students prepare to discuss the question ‘How are performances similar to and different from written stories?’ by reviewing the selection. Tell students to take turns identifying the key elements and details from the text and explaining why they are important. Instruct partners to spend time asking and answering each other’s questions about the play. Students answer the questions:
  • Do you think Carl Phillips is scared by the object?
  • How do the descriptions of sounds contribute to the play?
  • Do you think it was wrong to deliberately scare listeners, or was the radio broadcast just entertainment? Explain.

Unit 5, Lesson 23, Classroom Conversation

• Teachers are directed to, “Have the class continue the discussion of ‘The Ever-Living Tree: The Life and Times of a Coast Redwood’ by explaining their answers to the three questions. Students answer the questions:
  • What does the author want you to know about redwood trees?
  • What have you learned about the history of the world from the events the author describes?
  • If a redwood could talk, what might it tell about the things it has seen since it sprouted?”

Examples of discussions and modeling that are not evidence-based and do not encourage the modeling and use of academic vocabulary and syntax include but are not limited to:

Unit 1, Lesson 3, Think-Write-Pair-Share

• Students are directed to, “Think about a time when you couldn't read books or use other media. Where were you? What did you do instead? Did you have fun? Write a story that answers these questions. Then, share with a partner. Discuss your opinion of what is and isn’t fun.”

Unit 2, Lesson 10, Day 5 Speaking and Listening

• Students are directed to recount an experience about their creative interests. Students search for pictures, video clips, or sound recordings that will bring their experience to life or help others understand the importance of the art form as a means of expression. Students then practice their presentations, present, and answer questions.

Unit 5, Lesson 22, Talk About it

• Students are directed to, “Think about everything you know about the United States Constitution and rights. What are some rights of the U.S. citizens protected by the Constitution? Make a list of rights. Then, share your information with classmates.”

Unit 6, Lesson 29, Compare Texts, Text to Self

• Students are directed to discuss, “What sort of museum would you most like to visit? Why might exploring a museum lead you to develop new interests?”

Interactive Listening and Speaking Lessons are also provided that teach the rules of good discussion. These lessons are not evidence-based and do not connect to texts. Sentence starters are provided for English Language Learners.

The materials reviewed for Grade 4 partially meet expectations for supporting students’ listening and speaking about what they are reading and researching (including presentation opportunities) with relevant follow-up questions and evidence.

Protocols and routines for speaking and listening are presented in the Interactive Lessons. These lessons include rules for a good discussion, speaking constructively, listening and responding, giving a presentation, and using media in a presentation. These protocols are not located in the Student Edition.

Students practice listening comprehension during the weekly read aloud. Students are asked follow-up questions during the read aloud. Students read and respond to questions during the reading of the anchor texts and supporting text in whole class discussion and partner talk.

Each lesson includes teacher think alouds and a Speaking and Listening lesson on Day 5. The Speaking and Listening lessons do not always connect to the text or texts being read, do not always support what students are reading and researching, and do not always include relevant follow-up questions. There is limited instruction to support students mastering these presentation skills. For example:

• In Unit 4, Lesson 18, Day 5 students are asked to tell a story. Students are directed to select a traditional tale and tell a two-minute version of that story to a pattern. Students will then change partners and paraphrase, or retell the story in their own words.
• In Unit 5, Lesson 23, Day 5 students work with a partner to think of a time when they watched a person, animal, or plant move through the cycle of life. Students are told that they will recount this experience to a small group. The teacher is directed to provide examples such as: watching a kitten, puppy, or other pet grow into an adult; watching a newborn baby brother, sister, or cousin grow; watching a seed sprout grow into a mature plant. Students answer questions about the event on notecards, practice, and present in front of a small group.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 4 partially meet the expectation of materials including a mix of on-demand and process writing and short, focused projects incorporating digital resources where necessary.

Students write on demand after each anchor text during the Write to Reading. This provides a limited amount of practice with on-demand writing prompts.. These prompts are short text-based writing prompts with little direction for the students and/or teacher.

• In Unit 3, Lesson 12, students are asked to respond to, “Write a one-paragraph review of ‘The Earth Dragon Awakes.’ Begin by stating the title and the author’s name. Then tell whether you liked the story, and explain why or why not. Conclude your review by telling whether you would recommend this story or others by the same author. Be sure to support your opinions with text evidence from the story.” There is an additional support box on one page of the teacher’s edition for teachers to use during instruction to help students answer the prompt and an Interactive Lesson link is provided.

Students focus on one mode of writing across each unit. These modes include narratives, informational essays, and opinions. After each lesson there is a writing lesson which includes a model writing. During the last two weeks of a unit, students follow the steps of the writing process through publishing. There is a limited amount of practice with the writing mode when students are working through the lessons. The first lessons students do not write, but rather read about writing and look at model writings. The first time students are writing independently is during the end of unit performance task. This provides limited practice of process writing.

• For example, in Unit 5: Change It Up, the mode of writing taught is a research report. Students read examples of writing a summary, explanation, and a procedural composition. After the last lesson of the unit, students follow the steps of the writing process - prewrite, draft, revise, edit, and publish - and complete the research report unit performance task.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 4 partially meet the expectations of materials providing frequent opportunities for evidence-based writing to support careful analyses, well-defended claims, and clear information. Most tasks are independent of the main selection texts, and they do not build over the course of the year. Performance Task writings can often be answered without the use of the texts or cannot be answered with the information provided by the texts. There are some experiences that engage students in practicing argument/opinion, informative/explanatory, and narrative writing; however, the writing tasks do not increase in rigor over the course of the year.

Examples of writing that does not require students to use evidence from the text include but are not limited to:

• In Unit 1, Lesson 2, “Prompt: Write a story about a funny, exciting, or meaningful experience, real or imaginary” (Projectable 2.7).
• In Unit 6, Lesson 29, “Write an essay that tells about something you think everyone should do to make the world a better place. State your opinion clearly and give reasons for your opinion” (Projectable 29.4).

Additional instructional supports are needed for teachers to guide students’ understanding of developing ideas, building components of structured writing, and integrating evidence from texts and other sources. Students are asked to use text evidence, but there is little guidance to the teacher on how to teach students to use text evidence. Most questions are preceded by or followed by the prompt “Cite Text Evidence,” however, students are not instructed on how to find or cite evidence from the text. Students are provided with a writing tip that is sometimes related to the text evidence and other times, the tip is related to grammar or other writing aspects.

The materials reviewed for Grade 4 partially meet the expectation that materials, questions, and tasks address grade-level CCSS for foundational skills to build comprehension by providing instruction in phonics, word recognition, vocabulary, morphology, and reading fluency in a research-based and transparent progression.

While students work on skills to help them work on unfamiliar words, there are few materials that build to tasks for students to accurately read unfamiliar multisyllabic words in and out of context. While multisyllable words are in the text that students read, there is a not a clear sequence learning the skills to implementing those skills.

In Unit 1, there are out of context decoding lessons about below grade level syllabication patterns such as Lesson 1, Decoding: The VCV Syllable Pattern, Lesson 3, Decoding: The VCCV Syllable, Lesson 4, Decoding: VCV and VCCV Syllable Patterns. In Unit 2, Lesson 8, there is a continuation of out-of-context syllabication lessons. In Unit 3, Lesson 15, students will learn how to decode three-syllable words in an out-of-context lesson. In Unit 5, Lessons 22, 23, 24, and 25, students will learn in an out-of-context lesson how to use syllable patterns and word parts to decode longer words. Opportunities for learning how to decode long or difficult words are in the latter half of the school year, so if a teacher does not make it to the later units, students will miss out on learning grade level standards for reading difficult multisyllable words.

Prefix lessons begin in Unit 1, Lesson 1 with re-, un-, and dis-, which were taught in the Grade 3. In Unit 2, Lesson 2, students are taught two more prefixes (in- and im-) covered in Grade 3 as well as two new prefixes, il- and it-. In Unit 1, Lesson 4, students are taught two more prefixes (non- and mis-) taught in Grade 3. The majority of prefixes taught in Unit 1 for five weeks are review from Grade 3. The prefixes re-, un-, and dis- are reviewed in the decoding instruction and spelling instruction in Unit 4, Lesson 18. Prefix instruction returns in Unit 5 with students being retaught pre- from Grade 3 and learning two new prefixes, inter- and ex-. The materials contain only four new prefixes to be taught during vocabulary instruction over the course of the school year.

Suffix lessons begin in Unit 2, Lesson 6 with -y and -ous in the vocabulary instruction, which were taught in the Grade 3 materials. In Unit 3, Lesson 11, students are taught -ful, -less, and -ness in the vocabulary instruction, which were taught in the Grade 3 materials. The only new suffix taught in Lesson 11 is -ment. In Unit 3, Lesson 14, students are taught -able and -ible in the vocabulary instruction, which were taught in the Grade 3 materials. In Unit 4, Lesson 17, students relearn -ion from Grade 3 and are taught -ation and -ition. In Unit 5, Lesson 24, students are taught -ly (taught in Grade 3) and -ed. In the final lesson of the instructional materials, students are taught three new prefixes: -er, -or, and -ist. The materials contain few lessons on new suffixes.

The materials contain explicit instruction on morphology starting in Unit 2, Lesson 7 in the vocabulary strategies instruction. In Day 4, students are taught five different Greek and Latin word parts: phon, photo, graph, auto, and tele. In Unit 3, Lesson 13, Day 4 in the vocabulary strategies instruction, students are taught three new Greek and Latin word parts and one word part from Unit 2, Lesson 7: spect, struct, tele, and vis. In Unit 5, Lesson 25, Day 4, students learn four new word parts: meter, therm, aud, and fac. Unit 6 contains review lessons about word parts. There are few morphology lessons and those lessons require students to learn many word parts in just one day.

The materials contain opportunities for students to practice reading aloud grade-level text fluently with accuracy, stress, appropriate pace/rate, expression/intonation, attention to punctuation and appropriate phrasing. Fluency is emphasized daily.

The materials reviewed for Grade 4 partially meet the expectation that materials, questions, and tasks guide students to read with purpose and understanding and help them to make frequent connections between acquisition of foundational skills and making meaning from reading.

The instructional materials contain directions to the teacher to set the purpose for the reading of each anchor text. For example, in Unit 4, Lesson 20, the teacher sets the purpose: “Model setting a purpose: I have seen Sacagawea’s face on the one-dollar coin, so she must be important to American history. I understand from looking at the pictures and skimming the text that she and her husband traveled with the Lewis and Clark Corps of Discovery. I want to find out about her role in this expedition” (p. T319). Then students are to set their own purpose for reading the text. There is a missed opportunity for students to set their own purpose for reading the anchor text without hearing the teacher model a think-aloud of setting the purpose.

During vocabulary instruction of each lesson, there is a lesson called Vocabulary in Context, which provides students the opportunity to learn 10 vocabulary words in context prior to reading the anchor text.

• On Day 1, anchor text vocabulary is introduced with the use of Context Cards.The cards contain images of the word and a sentence with the word in it. The teacher provides the definition of each vocabulary words. Students are asked to use the Talk It Over activities on those cards.
• On Day 3, the students participate in a classroom collaboration based on questions about the vocabulary. For example, in Unit 5, Lesson 23, these questions may be asked: “What natural resources exist in your state? What continent do you live on? What continents would you like to visit?” (p. T191).
• On Day 4, students learn a vocabulary strategy to help students understand some of the weekly vocabulary terms. For example, in Unit 5, Lesson 23, students are taught about prefixes (pre-, inter-, ex-), and how adding prefixes or suffixes to the anchor text vocabulary changes the word. Students are guided through Projectable 23.3. In Apply, students identify prefix and base words from the Projectable and use their knowledge with context clues to figure out the meaning of each word. Students also use content-area textbooks to identify three more words with the newly learned prefixes.

Sometimes during Language Detective, students learn to word analysis skills. In Unit 2, Lesson 15, using the anchor text, the teacher models how to determine unfamiliar words using Greek and Latin root words. Students practice the morphology skill using ultraviolet and microwave.

While students practice word analysis skills with the anchor text vocabulary and the Day 4 Vocabulary Strategy lesson, opportunities to practice other word analysis skills in text are limited specific tasks that do not necessarily connect with the anchor text or paired text. For example, in Unit 2, Lesson 9, students are taught common beginning syllables. This is a one day lesson (Day 3). The teacher teaches and models common beginning syllables and then students practicing break words into syllables, identifying the first syllable, and saying each word aloud. Most decoding skill practice opportunities are limited to one day of instruction without being connected to applying the skill to a text.