3rd Grade - Gateway 2

Materials reviewed for Grade 3 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 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 3 Theme: Lesson Learned (social studies-focused unit)
  • Week 1: Inventions
  • Week 2: Agriculture
  • Week 3: American Indian History
  • Week 4: People and Animals
  • Week 5: Cooking

The theme of Unit 1 is "Good Citizens" The topic of Week 1 is "education." During the Teacher Read Aloud, the teacher reads a passage which contains eight target vocabulary words: fine, principal, proud, strolled, announced, certainly, soared, worried. On Day 1, students learn those eight 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, Schools Then and Now, 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. In Day 3, students learn enrich vocabulary: involved, observed, courage, suspense.

Prior to reading the anchor text, A Fine, Fine Day by Sharon Creech, the teacher helps preview the topic for students, which provides students with background knowledge. During the reading of A Fine, Fine Day, students learn what makes the school a fine, fine school and must refer to the text to support their responses. After reading the text, students do an oral retelling of the story. In the reread of the text, students analyze the story’s structure and illustrations, while completing a graphic organizer. As a performance task, students think about things they learned outside of school and why each thing is important and write their opinions and reasons. During the independent reading of the anchor text, students complete Reader’s Notebook Lesson 1, which requires students to use the text and illustrations to answer questions about the text.

During Day 4, students read One-Room Schoolhouses (no author listed). 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 compare and contrast the schools in the anchor text and the paired selection. Students compare a fictional school to one-school houses.

The weekly writing uses the anchor text as a model for teaching students about elaboration and planning a descriptive paragraph, but students do not use the text to write about education, the topic for the week.

The following week is no longer about education. The topic is the court system, 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 Going Places and in the fourth week (lesson 24), the topic is volcanoes. While the texts share the same target vocabulary (guided, rippled, arrival, twisted, aboard, bay, lava, anchor, spotted, voyage), the texts are not all about volcanoes. For example, the vocabulary reader is entitled Sea Lions by Catherine Godine, which is about sea lions. The anchor text is Dog-of-the-Sea-Waves by James Rumford and is also about a sea lion, yet the overarching topic of the week is volcanoes.

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 3 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 few sets of questions and tasks that 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.

All questions that require students to analyze the text are included in the Dig Deeper section of each lesson. 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 2, the teacher edition states, “Tell students that authors choose particular words and phrases for a certain effect. By choosing more precise words, an author better shows who the characters are and what they do.” Students then look at a model sentence that is not connected to a text and choose more precise words for big and walked.
• In Unit 2, Lesson 15, the teacher edition states, “Explain to students that written and spoken language often sound different. Tell them that written language tends to be more formal, or serious and polite, while spoken language tends to be more informal, or more relaxed. Explain that authors often use formal language to describe characters’ actions and thoughts to describe characters’ actions and thoughts and they use informal language when showing what the characters say.” Students then look for examples of informal and formal language in the lesson text.
• In Unit 4, Lesson 20, the teacher edition states, “Tell students that context can help readers determine whether a word or phrase is being used in a literal or nonliteral way.” Students then use context to review the meaning of words and phrases from the lesson text.
• In Unit 5, Lesson 24, the teacher edition states,“Explain that to determine the main idea of a section, students should ask themselves, ‘What is this section mostly about?’ or ‘What is the most important idea in this section?’” Students then discuss the main idea of the first section of the lesson text.

The instructional materials for Grade 3 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 4, Lesson 16 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 encourages 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. An example of directions given is:

• “Write the following Related Words on the board. Read each word aloud, and have students repeat after you. Then read the student-friendly explanation for each word. Connect each word’s meaning to the selection Bat Loves the Night by writing the context sentences on the board and reading them aloud” (Unit 2, Lesson 6, page T48).

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: postage stamp, correspondent, email, and return address.

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 3 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, and 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 to they provide support and scaffolding to help students reach the depth of writing that is required of these standards. As the year progresses materials follow the same format and rigor throughout, rather than raising the student 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 3 (opinion, narrative, and informative). At the end of each unit is a performance task (with the exception of Unit 6), that 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 personal narrative paragraph, personal narrative essay, story scene, and fictional narrative in both Lessons 4 & 5. The Unit 2 culminating writing project is an opinion essay, and the daily writing assignments are appropropriate and instruct students in narrative and opinion writing; Lessons 6, 7, 9, & 10 all directly relate to writing an opinion. 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 9):

• “Read together Student book p.352 and the exploring list the exploring list made by the student writer, Hector.”
• “Then read Hector’s opinion chart on Student Book p. 353.”
• “Ask: How did Hector use his exploring list to write an opinion statement and organize his opinion chart?”

In an additional example, in Unit 5, Lesson 25, students write a fictional narrative 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

Therefore, even though the materials include writing instruction aligned to the standards for the grade level, and the writing instruction spans the whole year, they do not support students' increasing skills over the course of the school year. 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. In addition, the materials follow the same format and rigor throughout the year, rather than raising the student expectations.

The instructional materials for Grade 3 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. Grade 3 students have some opportunities to practice learning the components necessary to think critically and practice research skills, although teacher guidance is not comprehensive.

Each Research and Literacy Media section includes a “skill focus” which varies by the lesson. For example, in Unit 1, Lesson 5, the skill focus is to narrow a topic. However, the only instruction provided is: “Tell students that when doing research, it is important to narrow their ideas to one topic. The topic should be broad enough so students will have options for research. Have students refer to the topics they have brainstormed from Lesson 4. Tell them that they will use this material to narrow down a topic.” The instruction provided is not adequate in helping students narrow a topic for research, and teachers may need to supplement with additional planning.

The Research and 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 2, Lesson 9, students pick a topic, generate questions, narrow their brainstorming lists, and gather information to present on a topic. Instruction includes the following directions:

• “Pick a Topic: Remind students that Kamishibai Man presents the kamishibai style of storytelling. Tell students that storytelling is still a form of entertainment today. Then tell students that they will use this general topic as a starting point and work toward framing a research question. Explain to students that they will have options for research. Ask them to think about what they would like to know about storytelling.”
• “Gather Information: Explain to students that they will need to do preliminary research to have a better understanding about the topic. Discuss with students how they would go about this, such as using encyclopedias, the Internet, and other sources or by conducting surveys and interviews. Then have them gather information about their topic.”
• “Refine the Research Question: Explain to students that now that they have some more information about their topic, they should refine their research questions to give them a clear, direct focus. Tell students that this will make it easier to write their research report. Have students share their research questions on an approved classroom blog or wiki page, where they can ask for feedback from classmates. Guide students to use appropriate punctuation and capitalization. Remind them that standard, formal English is required for all school work, even if it is written on a computer.”

In Unit 5, Lesson 24, students choose a topic, research, take notes and cite sources, then write and share their research papers.

• “Choose a Topic: Remind students that they can generate a research topic from personal interests or by brainstorming with others. Have students write a list of topics that interest them about the islands of Hawaii. Then have them narrow their ideas to one topic. Have students formulate several open-ended questions about their topic and choose their best questions to research.”
• “Research the Topic: Review for students how to take brief notes when researching information. Have students recall the types of print and digital resources they many use to gather information-- print books, magazines, newspapers, and trusted websites. Then have students conduct research to find answers to their questions. Remind them that they will not have to use all the information they have collected. Instead, suggest that students review each question they used to guide their research and then use only the information that answers that question.”
• “Write a Research Paper: Have students use their notes and, if possible, a computer to write and publish a research paper. Remind students to introduce the topic and support it with information that consists of facts, definitions, and details gathered from research. Have them include illustrations if they will be useful for the reader in aiding comprehension. Add that students need to provide a concluding statement to remind the reader of the topic and some key facts.”

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 no direction on when teachers should use the mini-lessons.

The materials for Grade 3 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:

• “Have students read Bat Loves the Night on their own. Then distribute Reader’s Notebook Volume 1 pages 77-78 and have students complete them independently. Explain that they should respond to the prompts and questions by supporting their responses with ideas or sentence from Bat Loves the Night” (Unit 2, Lesson 6, page T46).
• “Remind students that they will find reading more enjoyable if they select topics that interest them. Review that a topic is a broad subject area, such as cooking” (Unit 4, Lesson 16, page T51).
• “Have students open to Reader’s Notebook pp. 172-173. Point out that they will be looking at “The Power of Magnets” in short sections to analyze what the author is communicating. Tell students that when they answer the questions on the page, they should always use evidence from the text to support their responses” (Unit 6, Lesson 27, page T81).

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:

• “Schedule a time when students can benefit from a quiet activity, such as just before or after lunch or recess. Try to keep the same time each day” (Unit 1, Lesson 2, page T99).
• “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 3, Lesson 11, page T7).
• “ Regular visits to the school library or media center support and enrich the classroom independent reading program” (Unit 5, Lesson 23, page T189).

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