6th Grade - Gateway 2

Materials reviewed for Grade 6 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 4: Tales from the Past
  • Week 1: Fact and Legend
  • Week 2: Ancient China
  • Week 3: Myths
  • Week 4: Ancient Egypt
  • Week 5: Volcanoes

Each unit has a designated theme, but the lesson topics and texts do not always support the theme. The theme of Unit 5 is "Taking Risks". Lesson 22 (Flight), lesson 23 (World War II), and lesson 24 (Civil Rights) include texts which support the theme such as First to Fly: How Wilbur and Orville Wright Invented the Airplane by Peter Busby (lesson 22), Number the Stars by Lois Lowry (lesson 23), and Harriet Tubman: Conductor of the Underground Railroad by Ann Petry (lesson 24). The lesson topics and texts for lesson 21: Working Together and lesson 25: Robots do not consistently support the theme. For example, in lesson 25, the essential question is: How do robots solve problems? This essential question connects to the topic of the week (robots), but is loosely connected to the theme (taking risks). Over the course of the week, students build knowledge about robots and have access to learning 10 vocabulary words. During the Teacher Read Aloud, the teacher reads a passage which contains ten target vocabulary words: uncanny, ultimate, literally, data, inaccessible, interaction, domestic, sensors, artificial, stimulus. 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, World of Robots by Jennifer Schultz, 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, Robotics by Helena Domaine, the teacher helps preview the topic for students, which provides students with background knowledge about the topic of robots. During the reading of Robotics, students write a cite evidence and summarize the main idea of the text. After reading the text, students use dates and signal words to figure out sequence of events. During the second reading, students look for clues to figure out domain specific words. As a performance task, students write an opinion paragraph about the following question: Do you think the current widespread use of robots to do work for people is a change for the better? During the independent reading of the anchor text, students complete Reader’s Notebook lesson 25, which requires students to use evidence from the text to document engineering challenges.

Students read a paired text called Dr. Sneed’s Best Friend by Nick James. Some of the target vocabulary is in the text such as artificial and sensors. Students participate in Text to Text, Text to Self, and Text to World activities after reading the paired selection. For example, students can select a robot from Robotics and write a short play scene

The weekly writing is about organization and planning an argument. On Day 2 of writing, the teacher models how Helena Domaine wrote strong, precise words, so students use precise, strong words in their argument like the author did for Robotics. While the teacher models with the topic of robotics for writing an argument, students do not have to use the topic or texts in their own writing.

The previous week is not about robotics. The topic is the civil rights, which has different vocabulary and builds knowledge about a new topic. Since only one week is spent on robotics, students do not build in-depth vocabulary and knowledge.

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 6 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 analyze texts.

• In Unit 1, students will answer questions and tasks that ask students to analyze items including but not limited to, characters, dialogue, author’s purpose, figurative language, literary text structure, and informational text structure.
• In Unit 2, students will answer questions and tasks that ask students to analyze items including but not limited to, theme, metaphors, text and graphic features, literary and informational text structure, conclusions and generalizations, connotation and denotations, and arguments and claims.
• In Unit 3, students will answer questions and tasks that ask students to analyze items including but not limited to, arguments and claims, figurative language, literary and informational text structure, point of view, connotation, theme, author’s word choice, visualization, style and tone, and text features.
• In Unit 4, students will answer questions and tasks that ask students to analyze items including but not limited to, author’s purpose, main idea and details, setting, author’s word choice, analyze historical characters, style and tone, and key events.
• In Unit 5, students will answer questions and tasks that ask students to analyze items including but not limited to, character motivation, point of view, conclusions and generalizations, figurative language, author’s purpose, variations of English, main ideas, and key details.
• In Unit 6, students will answer questions and tasks that ask students to analyze items including but not limited to, main idea, key details,conclusions and generalizations, character analysis, persuasive language, and text and graphic features.

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 5, the teacher edition states, “Ask: What is the author’s perspective on Walter and Christopher’s relationship? Then ask: What words and phrases in the text let you know the author’s perspective on Walter Dean Myers and his son?” (page T327)
• In Unit 2, lesson 7, the teacher edition states, “Paying attention to how the author uses each section of the text to introduce and develop ideas helps the reader understand how each section fits into the overall structure of the text.” Students are then directed to, “Use these pages to learn about Text and Graphic Features, Text Structure, and Figurative Language.”
• In Unit 4, lesson 16, the teacher edition states,“Guide students to identify text evidence that describes the houses of the poorer and wealthier residents of Hedeby and record them in their Venn Diagram.” (page T23)

In Unit 5, lesson 24, the teacher edition states,“Guide students in understanding that the author likely included nonstandard English to reflect the dialect used by Harriet Tubman and her brothers.” Also, “Guide students to find examples of nonstandard English. Ask: What words or phrases that don’t follow grammar rules do you see in Harriet’s words and those of her brothers?” (page T247)

The instructional materials for Grade 6 partially meet expectations for providing questions and tasks that support students’ ability to complete culminating tasks in which they demonstrate their knowledge of a topic or theme through integrated skills. Each unit typically provides a writing performance task as a culminating project that partially contains the necessary skills for reading, writing, speaking and listening. In some instances, the writing performance task requires components of research and the writing process. Speaking and listening skills are also required in some instances. To complete the performance tasks, students draw on their reading and analysis of the anchor selections, and they are also told they can conduct additional research. During each lesson within the unit, students also practice writing that leads to the culminating skill in the last lesson of each unit.

For culminating tasks, the questions and tasks preceding the task sometimes align and support students' understandings and abilities to complete the assignments. In some tasks, the teacher may need to create or obtain other supports to ensure students have the knowledge and tools to complete the tasks. Prior questions that are asked do not give the teacher useable knowledge of whether students are capable of completing tasks. Interactive lessons are available to help students understand the procedures and processes for writing, speaking, and conducting research. There are also specific grammar lessons that go along with each lesson. These lessons provide students with information to help them to understand and complete performance tasks.

Culminating tasks do provide a platform for students to demonstrate some comprehension and knowledge of a topic and/or topics. A representative example in the program partially supporting students in demonstrating knowledge through an integrated culminating writing task is the following:

• The Unit 2 Performance Task directly relates to the unit theme of Finding Your Voice. Students write an opinion essay that expresses and supports an opinion. Writing throughout the unit leading up to the event includes writing an opinion paragraph in Lesson 6 and Lesson 9, finding main ideas in Lesson 7, and using a story map that documents the main characters, setting, problem, and solution in Lesson 8. Speaking and listening skills are also present as students are provided options for presenting information such as: (1) read the essay aloud to the class, (2) produce a newspaper with several students’ writings, or (3) present the essay as part of a debate. Speaking and listening options are weak if students are not presenting. Outside research is not required in this piece, but students can use other sources if they choose to do research. Students are to describe which text from the unit is the best and which is the worst and support their opinion with evidence from the text. This performance task may not build students' knowledge of a topic.
• The Unit 5 Performance task directly relates to the unit theme of Taking Risks. Students compare/contrast three unit anchor texts and then determine which character or person best describes the definition of “brave” as described in one of the anchor texts. The essay will be writing an argument to support their choice. Writing throughout the unit leading up to the event includes writing an opinion piece in Lesson 21 and Lesson 24, writing text evidence to support an argument in Lesson 23, and writing a response in Lesson 25. Interactive lessons are included such as writing arguments and opinion writing, supporting claims, and writing conclusions. Speaking and listening skills are also present as students are provided options for presenting information such as: (1) read your argument to class, (2) post your writing on the school website, or (3) present your argument in a debate. Outside research is not required. This task may not build students' knowledge of the topic.

The instructional materials for Grade 6 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 a an example of Unit 3, lesson 12 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. Support for these conversations and tasks is minimal. For each lesson there are instructions that state:

• “Read aloud each of the following questions. Have students discuss their answers. Allow several students to respond to each question to provide a variety of possible responses for discussion.” (Unit 3, lesson 12, page T117).

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 2, Lesson 23 students study the vocabulary strategy of determining the meaning of words based on their Latin roots and affixes and are then introduced to the domain-specific vocabulary: bacteria, elements, organic, pressure, and spore.

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. There is limited guidance for teachers to ensure Grade 6 students are able to apply new vocabulary.

The materials for Grade 6 partially meet the criteria 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 ‘Airborn’ on their own to analyze how Matt Cruise showed bravery to help save another person’s life. Have students use the Reader’s Guide pages in their Reader’s Notebook, pp. 157-158” (Unit 3, Lesson 12, page T116).
• “After students have selected a book, have them choose one chapter and analyze how it fits into the overall structure of the story or contributes to the development of the story’s plot. Have students use their Reading Logs to record their progress” (Unit 3, Lesson 12, page T116).
• “Have students select two or three fiction books and read the book jacket or back
  cover summaries. Tell students to select one book to read based on the summary” (Unit 5, Lesson 23, page T184).
• “Take a Picture Walk. Have students practice comprehension skills using an
  independent reading book. Tell students that they can take a picture walk through
  a book to get an idea of what the book is about. Then help them choose a ‘just
  right’ fiction book” (Unit 2, Lesson 9, page T258).

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

• “Writing in response to texts prompts students to think more deeply about the
  text. Vary the kinds of writing you ask students to do in order to keep them engaged and motivated to write about their independent reading” (Unit 4, Lesson 18, page T155).
• “School Library. Regular visits to the school library or media center support and enrich the classroom independent reading program” (Unit 5, Lesson 23, page T157).
• “Build a Classroom Library. A classroom library full of books and other texts and media offers students a rich and accessible reading environment” (Unit 1, Lesson 1, page T7).

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