4th Grade - Gateway 2

Materials reviewed for Grade 4 partially meet expectations for texts being organized around a topic/topics to build students’ ability to read and comprehend complex texts independently and proficiently. The instructional materials contain units, which are organized around six separate themes. Within in a theme, each week is about a social studies or science topic or a sub theme related to the unit theme. The theme in each unit is broad, therefore each weekly topic or sub theme or topic does not build consistent vocabulary or knowledge across the weeks. The weekly topics build surface level knowledge, so students will not be able to use that knowledge to comprehend other complex texts especially across the five week long unit. An example of a unit theme and topics/sub themes is:

• Unit 1 Theme: Reaching Out (social studies focus)
  • Week 1: Helping Others
  • Week 2: Civil Rights
  • Week 3: Media
  • Week 4: Raising Money
  • Week 5: Traditional Tales

The theme of Unit 3 is "Inside Nature." The topic of Week 2 is forces of nature. During the Teacher Read Aloud, the teacher reads a passage which contains 10 target vocabulary words: constructed, crushing, tenement, possessions, trembles, wreckage, debris, rubble, slab, timbers. On Day 1, students learn those ten vocabulary words in the Vocabulary in Context lesson, which includes students reading and pronouncing each word, followed by learning the word in context and then practicing activities based on the Talk It Over activity on the back of the cards. The vocabulary reader for the week, Keeping Safe in an Earthquake by Kaye Gager, uses the same target vocabulary as do the Leveled Readers. During the reading of the anchor text, students see and hear the same target vocabulary words.

Prior to reading the anchor text, The Earth Dragon Awakes: The San Francisco Earthquake of 1906 by Laurence Yep, the teacher helps preview the topic for students, which provides students with background knowledge. During the reading of The Earth Dragon Awakes: The San Francisco Earthquake of 1906, students learn what occurred during the earthquake and must refer to the text to support their responses to questions. After reading the text, students figure out the sequence of events for the text and analyze generalizations and conclusions. After the second reading, students can discuss with a partner the following question: How do natural disasters affect people? As a performance task, students write a one-paragraph review of The Earth Dragon Awakes: The San Francisco Earthquake of 1906. During the independent reading of the anchor text, students complete Reader’s Notebook lesson 12, which requires students to use details from the text to infer about a character.

During Day 4, students read Twisters by Laura Dameron. Some of the target vocabulary is in the text such as principal, worried, and soared. Students participate in Text to Text, Text to Self, and Text to World activities after reading the paired selection. For example, students write a disaster plan about a natural disaster that happens near students.

The weekly writing is about organization and planning an opinion paragraph, but students do not use the text to write about forces of nature, the topic of the week.

The following week is no longer about forces of nature. The topic is the interdependence, which has different vocabulary and builds knowledge about a new topic. Since only one week is spent on education, students do not build in-depth vocabulary and knowledge.

For some of the weekly identified topics, the texts do not match the topic fully. For example in Unit 5, the theme is Change It Up and in the first week (Lesson 21), the topic is Media. While the texts share the same target vocabulary (blaring, combination, racket, suggest, nocturnal, effort, promptly, introduce, feats, appreciate), the texts are not all about media. For example, the vocabulary reader is entitled Rodents by Kate Johanns, which is about rodents. The anchor text is The World According to Humphrey by Bettty G. Birney and is also about a rodent, yet the overarching topic of the week is Media.

Overall, the Units are theme-based with topics each week. Since the topic changes each week, students do not get a thorough opportunity to build knowledge and vocabulary. Furthermore, the identified weekly topics are not always supported by the texts and target vocabulary.

Materials reviewed for Grade 4 partially meet the criteria for containing sets of coherently sequenced questions and tasks that require students to analyze the language, key ideas, details, craft, and structure of individual texts. Materials contain sets of questions and tasks, but they do not consistently require students to analyze the language, key ideas, details, craft, and structure of individual texts. Over the course of the year, instructional materials stay consistent and do not grow in rigor across the year.

Each unit includes sets of questions and tasks that require students to analyze texts:

• In Unit 1, students will answer questions and tasks that ask students to analyze items including but not limited to point of view, flashbacks, idioms, informational text structure, elements of drama, allusions, and point of view.
• In Unit 2, students will answer questions and tasks that ask students to analyze items including but not limited to elements of drama, formal and informal language, theme, point of view, characters, structure of a biography, and figurative language.
• In Unit 3, students will answer questions and tasks that ask students to analyze items including but not limited to informational text structures, conclusions and generalizations, author’s word choice, figurative language, and analyzing arguments.
• In Unit 4, students will answer questions and tasks that ask students to analyze items including but not limited to informational and literary text structure, allusions, theme, and figurative language.
• In Unit 5, students will answer questions and tasks that ask students to analyze items including but not limited to figurative language, point of view, text structures, author’s word choice, and informal and formal language.
• In Unit 6, students will answer questions and tasks that ask students to analyze items including but not limited to text structure, main ideas and details, understanding characters, and conclusions and generalizations.

There are questions and tasks that ask students to analyze the language, key details, craft, and structure of texts, but they do not go to the necessary depth nor do they increase in rigor over the course of the instructional year. Although questions are provided, skills are inconsistently scaffolded, so they only sometimes build students’ overall comprehension or understanding of topics. In addition, teachers will often be unable to tell from students’ work whether they mastered concepts of each component. For example:

• In Unit 1, Lesson 1, the teacher edition states: “Next, ask students why an author might choose to use a flashback in a story. By using a flashback the author moves the story back in time. A flashback can explain a past event that may be important to the story.”
• In Unit 2, Lesson 7, the teacher asks, “Is the author using formal or informal language? Explain.”
• In Unit 4, Lesson 17, the teacher edition states: “Begin a second read of ‘The Right Dog for the Job’ with students. Use the stopping points and instructional support to guide students to analyze the text: sequence of events, main ideas and details, domain-specific vocabulary, and modifying to add details.”
• In Unit 5, Lesson 21, the teacher asks, “Why do you think the author asks the reader to picture the same scene in a different setting?

The instructional materials for Grade 4 partially meet the expectations of materials providing guidance for supporting students’ academic vocabulary. The materials include a year-long guide for vocabulary, including target vocabulary, domain-specific vocabulary, spelling words, and reading/language arts Tier III terms. The materials do not include a cohesive, year-long plan for students to interact with and build key academic vocabulary words across texts throughout the year.

Each lesson has a box for “Target Vocabulary” on the focus wall. There are 10 words in this box. Each weekly pacing guide instructs the teacher to “Introduce Vocabulary” on Day 1, “Apply Vocabulary Knowledge” on Day 3, use “Vocabulary Strategies” on Day 4, and use “Domain Specific Vocabulary” on Day 5. The students first hear the words in the teacher read aloud, although no instruction on these words takes place at this point. Vocabulary is introduced with Vocabulary in Context Cards, which introduce the words using sentences, but not within the context of a complete text. While vocabulary words are used across multiple texts within a weekly lesson, there is little use of academic vocabulary across units within a grade level throughout the year.

Examples of resources for vocabulary include:

• Students' texts include several references to a glossary of academic vocabulary (G1).
• The Vocabulary in Context Cards are used in every lesson and give sentences and various activities for students to complete (“Talk About It” and “Think About It”).

For each text, the teacher is directed to discuss the vocabulary with the students from the “Introduce Vocabulary” section. Below is an example of Unit 2, Lesson 7 vocabulary instructions:

• “Read and pronounce the word. Read the word once alone and then together.
• Explain the word. Read aloud the explanation under What Does It Mean?
• Discuss vocabulary in context. Together, read aloud the sentence on the front of the card. Helps students explain and use the word in new sentences.
• Engage with the word. Ask and discuss the Think About It question with students.
• Give partners or small groups one or two Vocabulary in Context Cards. Have students complete the Talk It Over activity on the back of each card. Have students complete the activities for all cards during the week.”

On Day 3, students encounter an “Apply Vocabulary Knowledge” section which encourage use of all of the critical vocabulary words with practice outside of the text content. Students are invited to discuss vocabulary as it relates to a given sentence. There is minimal support to ensure students are engaging with vocabulary to grow knowledge and internalize words. Below is an example of the directions given:

• “Read aloud each of the following questions. Have students discuss their answers. Allow several students to respond to each questions to provide a variety of possible responses for discussion. ” (Unit 5, Lesson 24, page T265).

On Day 4 students are instructed on vocabulary strategies through a teach/model, guided practice, and apply sequenced lesson. On Day 5, students are often introduced to Domain-Specific Vocabulary related to the topic of the week’s text, but outside of the context of the texts. For example in Unit 5, Lesson 23 students study the vocabulary strategy of determining the meaning of words based on their suffixes and are then introduced to the domain-specific vocabulary: arthropod, exoskeleton, invertebrate, and larva.

As demonstrated, the materials do include a year-long guide for vocabulary, including target vocabulary, domain-specific vocabulary, spelling words, and reading/language arts Tier III terms; however, they do not include a cohesive, year-long plan for students to interact with and build key academic vocabulary words across texts throughout the year.

The instructional materials for Grade 4 partially meet the expectations for materials supporting students' increasing writing skills over the course of the school year, building writing ability to demonstrate proficiency at grade level at the end of the school year. Materials include writing instruction aligned to the standards for the grade level. Writing instruction spans the whole year; however, materials do not support students' increasing skills over the course of the school year. While the materials offer prompts and performance tasks, and students practice writing with each lesson, the materials/unit writing tasks do not increase students’ skills throughout the year, nor do they provide support and scaffolding to help students reach the depth of writing that is required in these standards. As the year progresses materials follow the same format and rigor throughout, providing minimal assurance students will be prepared for writing at the end of year expectations.

The materials consist of six units, each containing five lessons which incorporate varied types of writing experiences, both on-demand and longer process writing. The materials include opportunities for students to write in all modes required by the CCSS-ELA writing standards for Grade 4 (opinion/argument, informative/explanatory, and narrative). A performance task at the end of each unit (with the exception of Unit 6) incorporates the unit’s weekly writing lessons while asking them to use text evidence from the selections that they have read.

Each of the units contain a writing activity for each of the lessons that lead to a culminating writing project at the end of the unit. Writing spans the entire year, is used frequently, and generally coincides with texts and themes. For example, in Unit 1 students will write a descriptive paragraph, a story, use dialogue, and a fictional narrative in order to complete the performance task. The Unit 2 culminating writing project is an explanatory essay, and the daily writing assignments are appropropriate and instruct students in informative writing; Lessons 6, 7, 9, & 10 all directly relate to writing an informative essay. Each lesson has a five-day plan for writing in which the model and focus are discussed in the first two days, then the plan is discussed on Day 3, generally using a graphic organizer and minimal instruction. On Day 4, students begin their draft, and on Day 5, students revise and edit. Materials for students sometimes include graphic organizers as students make an effort to organize their writing. The last section for revise and edit has minimal instruction such as in (Unit 2, Lesson 10):

• “Remind students that their explanatory essays must begin by stating the topic. The body should include facts and details that support each main idea. The essay should end with a conclusion that connects to the introduction.”
• “Read aloud the top of Student Book p. 310. Discuss the changes made by the student writer. Ask: How did Trudy make her introduction more interesting? She asked readers a question to get them interested in the topic.”
• “Have students explore Interactive Lessons: Writing as a Process:Revise and Edit to develop their narrative writing.”

In an additional example, in Unit 5, Lesson 25, students write a research report and go from analyzing the model to publishing in five days. There is minimal instruction for students and minimal guidance for teachers as they teach these skills to students.

There is an online platform for students to collect their writings with MyWrite Smart and My Notebook as well as a resource called Writing Handbook. Interactive lessons are also included to help students understand the writing process and the modes in which they are asked to write. While those are available, there are no further explanations for teachers on how to use those lessons effectively to support students. Examples of some interactive lessons are:

• Writing to Sources
• Writing as a Process: Introduction
• Writing as a Process: Plan and Draft
• Writing as a Process: Revise and Edit
• Writing Narratives: Introduction
• Writing Narratives: Organize Your Ideas
• Writing Informative Texts: Use Facts and Examples
• Writing Opinions: Support Your Argument
• Writing Opinions: Conclude Your Argument

While there are prompts and performance tasks, and students practice writing with each lesson, the materials/unit writing tasks do not increase students’ skills throughout the year, nor do they provide support and scaffolding to help students reach the depth of writing that is required of these standards. Teachers may need to supplement to support students in reaching the end of year expectations in writing.

The instructional materials for Grade 4 partially meet the expectations of including a progression of focused research projects to encourage students to develop knowledge in a given area by confronting and analyzing different aspects of a topic using multiple texts and source materials. Some lessons have a Research and Media Literacy section. Research components are present for Grade 4 students, although synthesized practice in research projects is limited.

Each Research and Literacy Media section includes a “skill focus” which varies by the lesson. For example, in Unit 2, Lesson 9, the skill focus is to "interpret information from a visual source." However, the only instruction provided is “Explain that when students conduct research and write reports, they may integrate information from visual sources, such as timelines, graphs, or chart, to support information in the report. Then provide the following scenario: Have students think about writing a research paper on snake species that live in the southwest United States. Then have them locate a second source about these snakes related to 'Field Guide to Snakes of the Southwest.' Tell them to identify two sentences from this new source that support the information in the chart on Student Book p. 278.” The instruction provided may not help students interpret information from a visual source.

The Research/Media Literacy sections contain similar components with minimal rigor development. The instruction provided at the beginning of the year does not change significantly over the year.

For example, in Unit 1, Lesson 3, students select a topic, research the topic, take notes, categorize information, and present. Instruction includes the directions:

• “Select a Topic: Compare and contrast how children get books in the united States with how they get books in the countries described in ‘My Librarian is a Camel.’ Then, have students review the selection and choose a country they would like to learn more about. Tell students they will research the selected country and present a report on it to the class.
• Research the Topic: Have students do research on the country they have chosen. Tell them to find media, such as pictures, maps, charts, and/or audio, to support key ideas in their reports and add interest. Remind students that they can use both print and digital sources in their research.
• Present: Have students present their reports to the class. Tell them to begin by explaining why they chose the particular country. Remind students to speak clearly and stay on topic."

In Unit 3, Lesson 15, students select and narrow a topic, explore the topic, select relevant media, organizer research and present. Instruction includes the directions:

• “Select and Narrow Topic: Have students revisit ‘Ecology for Kids.’ Tell them to select a specific topic from the selection that they would like to research, such as oceans or forests. Have them formulate focused research questions based on what they would like to learn about their topic.
• Explore the Topic: Tell students that to fully research their topic, they will need to investigate different aspects of it. After students have selected their topic and written their research questions, have them brainstorm different aspects of their topic in a graphic organizer, such as the one below.
• Present: Have students present their projects to the class. Tell them to speak clearly at a conversational pace, using note cards as needed. Encourage students to incorporate some form of media in their presentations, such as photos or videos, to help listeners better understand the topic. Remind students that they should clearly connect their ideas and details to their main topic using appropriate words and phrases.

There are few differences across the year in instruction, except for the skill focus. At the end of each unit are mini-lessons on research. While these mini-lessons do provide a little more depth than the ones in the lessons, there is little direction on when teachers should use the mini-lessons.

The materials for Grade 4 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 and record their progress in their reading log. Teachers are provided limited instruction on how to support reader independence. The following examples demonstrate the guidance provided to teachers:

• "Tell students that they will read ‘The Power of W.O.W!’ on their own to analyze key details about the play. Have students use the Reader’s Guide pages in their Reader’s Notebook, pp.37-38. Explain that they should respond to the prompts and questions by supporting their responses with evidence from ‘The Power of W.O.W.!’” (Unit 1, Lesson 4, page T262).
• “If students have demonstrated understanding and analysis of ‘The Life and Times of the Ant,’ have them practice the skills using an independent reading book. To help students prepare for reading independently, have them read the summary on the book jacket, tell what they will learn about, and predict how reading the book will add to their understanding of the topic” (Unit 3, Lesson 14, page 264).
• “To help students make a good selection, have them preview several books by reading the jacket copy and pages through the books to examine illustrations and other visuals. Ask students to use their Reading Logs in Grab-in-Go to record their progress and thinking about the book” (Unit 5, Lesson 23, page T190).

Students also complete independent reading tasks during literacy centers. The teacher is provided limited instruction for these tasks. Listed below are examples of activities involving independent reading:

• “Students who choose their own books will be more actively involved in the reading process. In a group discussion, ask students how they choose books. Record their responses on a chart, and display it in the classroom library” (Unit 2, Lesson 7, page T81).
• “Teachers and media specialists can work together to select and feature books that might interest students in a particular classroom. Be sure to choose a variety of reading levels and topics, including books that will help students with projects or research related to what they are learning in science or social studies” (Unit 4, Lesson 20, page T307).
• “Help students develop strategies to select books based on difficulty, content, and interest.” Teachers are then provided examples of strategies such as the five-finger method and book walks. (Unit 5, Lesson 24, page 237)

Independent assignments from the Reader’s Notebook and the Reading Log (found in the “Grab-and-Go) are provided to track independent reading.