8th Grade - Gateway 1
Back to 8th Grade Overview
Note on review tool versions
See the series overview page to confirm the review tool version used to create this report.
- Our current review tool version is 2.0. Learn more
- Reports conducted using earlier review tools (v1.0 and v1.5) contain valuable insights but may not fully align with our current instructional priorities. Read our guide to using earlier reports and review tools
Loading navigation...
Focus & Coherence
Gateway 1 - Meets Expectations | 92% |
|---|---|
Criterion 1.1: Focus | 2 / 2 |
Criterion 1.2: Coherence | 4 / 4 |
Criterion 1.3: Coherence | 7 / 8 |
The materials reviewed for Grade 8 meet the expectations for Gateway 1. These materials do not assess above-grade-level content and spend the majority of the time on the major clusters of each grade level. Teachers using these materials as designed will use supporting clusters to enhance the major work of the grade. Teachers using these materials as designed will use supporting clusters to enhance the major work of the grade. Although materials do not relate grade-level concepts explicitly to prior knowledge from earlier grades, the materials develop according to the grade-by-grade progressions in the Standards. Students are given extensive work on grade-level problems, and connections are made between clusters and domains where appropriate. Overall, the materials meet the expectations for focusing on the major work of the grade, and the materials also meet the expectations for coherence.
Criterion 1.1: Focus
The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 8 meet the expectations for not assessing any topics before the grade-level in which the topic should be introduced. All of the summative assessment questions focus on grade-level topics or below. Overall, the instructional materials do not assess any content from future grades.
Indicator 1a
The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 8 meet the expectations for assessing the grade-level content and, if applicable, content from earlier grades. The Sample Unit Quizzes and Tests included in the Teacher Resources Part 1 Section K and Teacher Resources Part 2 Section U, along with the answer keys and "Scoring Guides and Rubrics," were reviewed for this indicator. Examples of Unit Tests that include great-level assessment items include the following:
- In Teacher Resources Part 1, the Unit 4 Test that addresses standards from 8.EE.C has students examine linear equations that have one solution, infinitely many solutions, or no solutions and solve linear equations with rational number coefficients.
- In Teacher Resources Part 2, the Unit 4 Test that addresses standards from 8.G.B has students applying the Pythagorean Theorem to find unknown side lengths of right triangles in real-world problems and find the distance between two points on a coordinate grid.
Criterion 1.2: Coherence
Students and teachers using the materials as designed devote the large majority of class time in each grade K-8 to the major work of the grade.
The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 8 meet the expectations for focus on the major clusters of each grade. Students and teachers using the materials as designated will devote the majority of class time to the major clusters of the grade.
Indicator 1b
Instructional material spends the majority of class time on the major cluster of each grade.
The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 8 meet the expectations for spending the majority of class time on the major clusters of each grade. Overall, approximately 80 percent of class time is devoted to major work of the grade.
The materials for Grade 8 include 14 Units. In the materials, there are 156 lessons, and of those, 29 are Bridging lessons. According to the materials, Bridging lessons should not be “counted as part of the work of the year” (page A-56), so the number of lessons examined for this indicator is 127 lessons. The supporting clusters were also reviewed to determine if they could be factored in due to how strongly they support major work of the grade. There were connections found between supporting clusters and major clusters, and due to the strength of the connections found, the number of lessons addressing major work was increased from the approximately 101 lessons addressing major work as indicated by the materials themselves to 103.5 lessons.
Three perspectives were considered: 1) the number of units devoted to major work, 2) the number of lessons devoted to major work, and 3) the number of instructional days devoted to major work including days for unit assessments.
The percentages for each of the three perspectives follow:
- Units– Approximately 71 percent, 10 out of 14;
- Lessons– Approximately 81 percent, 103.5 out of 127; and
- Days– Approximately 80 percent, 113.5 out of 141.
The number of instructional days, approximately 80 percent, devoted to major work is the most reflective for this indicator because it represents the total amount of class time that addresses major work.
Criterion 1.3: Coherence
Coherence: Each grade's instructional materials are coherent and consistent with the Standards.
The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 8 meet the expectations for coherence. The materials use supporting content as a way to continue working with the major work of the grade and include a full program of study that is viable content for a school year including 141 days of lessons and assessment. Students are given extensive work on grade-level problems. Materials develop according to the grade-by-grade progressions in the Standards, but materials do not relate grade-level concepts explicitly to prior knowledge from earlier grades. These instructional materials are visibly shaped by the cluster headings in the standards, and connections are made between domains and clusters within the grade level. Overall, the Grade 8 materials support coherence and are consistent with the progressions in the standards.
Indicator 1c
Supporting content enhances focus and coherence simultaneously by engaging students in the major work of the grade.
The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 8 meet the expectations that supporting content enhances focus and coherence simultaneously by engaging students in the major work of the grade. When appropriate, the supporting work enhances and supports the major work of the grade-level.
Examples where connections are present include the following:
- In Lessons 46, 47, and 48 of Unit 4 in Teacher Resources Part 2, the materials connect 8.NS.2 with 8.G.7,8 as students are expected to use rational approximations of irrational numbers in order to apply the Pythagorean Theorem to real-world and mathematical problems or find the distance between two points in the coordinate plane.
- In Lessons 53 and 54 of Unit 6 in Teacher Resources Part 2, the materials connect 8.G.7 with 8.G.9 as students use the Pythagorean Theorem in real-world and mathematical problems in order to find the volumes of cones and spheres.
- In Lessons 7 and 8 of Unit 7 in Teacher Resources Part 2, the materials connect 8.F.4 with 8.SP.2 as students construct a linear model for a relationship between two quantities because a scatterplot of the two quantities suggests a linear association between them.
Indicator 1d
The amount of content designated for one grade level is viable for one school year in order to foster coherence between grades.
The instructional materials reviewed meet the expectations for having an amount of content designated for one grade level that is viable for one school year in order to foster coherence between grades. Overall, the amount of time needed to complete the lessons is approximately 141 days which is appropriate for a school year of approximately 140-190 days.
- The materials are written with 14 units containing a total of 156 lessons.
- Each lesson is designed to be implemented during the course of one 45 minute class period per day. In the materials, there are 156 lessons, and of those, 29 are Bridging lessons. Twenty-nine Bridging lessons have been removed from the count because the Teacher's Edition states that they are not counted as part of the work for the year, so the number of lessons examined for this indicator is 127 lessons.
- There are 14 unit tests which are counted as 14 extra days of instruction.
- There is a short quiz every 3-5 lessons. Materials expect these quizzes to take no more than 10 minutes, so they are not counted as extra days of instruction.
Indicator 1e
Materials are consistent with the progressions in the Standards i. Materials develop according to the grade-by-grade progressions in the Standards. If there is content from prior or future grades, that content is clearly identified and related to grade-level work ii. Materials give all students extensive work with grade-level problems iii. Materials relate grade level concepts explicitly to prior knowledge from earlier grades.
The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 8 partially meet the expectation for being consistent with the progressions in the Standards. Overall, the materials address the standards for this grade-level and provide all students with extensive work on grade-level problems. The materials make connections to content in future grades, but they do not explicitly relate grade-level concepts to prior knowledge from earlier grades.
The materials develop according to the grade-by-grade progressions in the Standards, and content from prior or future grades is clearly identified and related to grade-level work. The Teacher Resources contain sections that highlights the development of the grade-by-grade progressions in the materials, identify content from prior or future grades, and state the relationship to grade-level work.
- At the beginning of each unit, "This Unit in Context" provides a description of prior concepts and standards students have encountered during the grade-levels before this one. The end of this section also makes connections to concepts that will occur in future grade-levels. For example, "This Unit in Context" from Unit 6, Functions: Defining, Evaluating, and Comparing Functions, of Teacher Resources Part 1 describes the topics from Operations and Algebraic Thinking that students encountered in Grades 4 and 5, specifically generating patterns given rules, and from Equations and Expressions in Grade 6, specifically analyzing the relationship between dependent and independent variables. The description then includes topics from Functions, specifically the graph of a function along with its rate of change and initial value, and it concludes with how the work of this unit builds to the study of functions in high school.
The materials give all students extensive work with grade-level problems. The lessons also include "Extensions," and the problems in these sections are on grade-level.
- Whole class instruction is used in the lessons, and all students are expected to do the same work throughout the lesson. Individual, small-group, or whole-class instruction occurs in the lessons.
- The problems in the Assessment & Practice books align to the content of the lessons, and they provide on grade-level problems that "were designed to help students develop confidence, fluency, and practice." (page A-54, Teacher Resources)
- In the Advanced Lessons, students get the opportunity to engage with more difficult problems, but the problems are still aligned to grade-level standards. For example, the problems in Lesson 23 of Unit 2 in Teacher Resources Part 1 engage students in estimation with numbers written in scientific notation and the four operations, and these problems still align to 8.EE.3,4. Also, the problems in Lesson 55 of Unit 5 in Teacher Resources Part 2, Solving Word Problems Algebraically, align to 8.EE.8.
The instructional materials do not relate grade-level concepts explicitly to prior knowledge from earlier grades. Examples of missing explicit connections include:
- Every lesson identifies “Prior Knowledge Required” even though the prior knowledge identified is not aligned to any grade-level standards. For example, Lesson 15 of Unit 1 in Teacher Resources Part 2 states that its goals are to introduce the y-intercept and find the y-intercept by graphing and draw a line using the slope and y-intercept. The prior knowledge required is adding, subtracting, and dividing integers and plotting points on a grid.
- There are 29 lessons identified as Bridging Lessons, but these lessons are not explicitly aligned to standards from prior grades even though they do state for which grade-level standards they are preparation. For example, in Unit 1 of Teacher Resources Part 1, all fourteen lessons are Bridging Lessons and are labeled as "preparation for" various standards in 8.EE and 8.F.3. However, none of these fourteen Bridging Lessons are explicitly aligned to standards prior to Grade 8. Also, Lessons 13 and 14 of Unit 1 in Teacher Resources Part 2 are Bridging Lessons labeled as "preparation for 8.G.1, 8.G.3, and 8.F.4" that have students plotting points in coordinate grids and finding the lengths of horizontal and vertical line segments, but the lessons are not explicitly aligned to standards prior to Grade 8.
Indicator 1f
Materials foster coherence through connections at a single grade, where appropriate and required by the Standards i. Materials include learning objectives that are visibly shaped by CCSSM cluster headings. ii. Materials include problems and activities that serve to connect two or more clusters in a domain, or two or more domains in a grade, in cases where these connections are natural and important.
The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 8 meet the expectations for fostering coherence through connections at a single grade, where appropriate and required by the standards. Overall, materials include learning objectives that are visibly shaped by CCSSM cluster headings and make connections within and across domains.
In the materials, the units are organized by domains and are clearly labeled. For example, Teacher Resources Part 1 Unit 7 is titled Statistics and Probability: Patterns in Scatter Plots, and Teacher Resources Part 2 Unit 4 is titled Geometry: Pythagorean Theorem. Within the units, there are goals for each lesson, and the language of the goals is visibly shaped by the CCSSM cluster headings. For example, in Unit 5 of Teacher Resources Part 1, one of the goals for Lesson 44 states "Students will review the concept of unit rate and find the unit rate in proportional relationships represented in different ways, including on the line of a graph." The language of this goal is visibly shaped by 8.EE.B, "Understand the connections between proportional relationships, lines, and linear equations."
The instructional materials include problems and activities that serve to connect two or more clusters in a domain or two or more domains in a grade. Examples of these connections include the following:
- In Lessons 15 through 19 and 23 of Unit 1 in Teacher Resources Part 2, the materials connect 8.F.B with 8.F.A as students are expected to be able to interpret the equation y=mx+b as defining a linear function and construct a function to model a linear relationship between two quantities.
- In Lesson 55 of Unit 6 in Teacher Resources Part 2, the materials connect 8.G.B with 8.G.C as students apply the Pythagorean Theorem in order to find the volumes of cones and pyramids.
- In Lessons 37 and 38 of Unit 2 in Teacher Resources Part 2, the materials connect 8.EE.B with 8.G.A as students use an understanding of similar triangles in order to explain why the slope is the same between any two points on a line and derive the equation of a line through the origin or any other point on the vertical axis.
- In Lessons 42 and 43 of Unit 4 in Teacher Resources Part 2, the materials connect 8.EE.A with 8.G.B as students work with radicals, specifically square root and cube root symbols, in order to represent solutions of equations that arise from developing an understanding of and being able to apply the Pythagorean Theorem.