5th Grade - Gateway 2

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 5 meet the criteria that materials contain sets of coherently sequenced questions and tasks that require students to analyze the language, key ideas, details, craft, and structure of individual texts.

Throughout the units, teachers are provided with a series of questions and tasks that require analysis of all aspects of the text including key ideas, details, language, craft, and structure. Because the units often allow for extensive time with one text, the discussion questions, writing tasks, and Target Tasks build in depth and complexity from the beginning of the unit to the end, and the expectation is eventually that students know how to use evidence from the text to support their responses. The expectation increases with each unit, building toward independence throughout the year when students are required to complete extensive writing assignments, using the text as evidence and/or as a mentor text for their own writing. Throughout the year, students are pointed to figurative language and word choice, asked to consider decisions made by the author in crafting and structuring their work, and consider questions around theme and characterization.

In Literature and Social Studies, students analyze the language used in the text. Examples include:

• In Literature, Unit 2, Lesson 3, after reading The Breadwinner by Deborah Ellis, students are asked the following key question and are given the following Target Task: "Why father says, 'You are all brave women. You are all inheritors of the courage of Malawi,' what does it show about Father's point of view toward women? Toward his daughters? How does the author characterize Parvana? How does the author develop the characterization?"
• In Science and Social Studies, Unit 2, Lesson 1, after reading Migrant Workers' Fight for Justice, students are asked: "Explain why the study of Cesar Chavez and the farm workers movement is important by quoting a text accurately when explaining what a text says explicitly or when drawing inferences about a text."
• In Literature, Unit 4, Lesson 1, after reading One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia, students are asked: "Describe the girl's airplane ride. What figurative language does the author include to show how the girls are feeling about the ride and the trip? Based on the author's description, who is Cecile? How do the other characters view her? Why? Word Choice to Analyze: page. 5: There were too many of 'us' in the waiting room, and too many of 'them' staring. Who is the author referring to with 'us' and 'them'? Why does he author put them in quotation marks?"

Students analyze key ideas in Literature and Social Studies and Science. Examples include:

• In Literature, Unit 1, Lesson 10, after reading Seedfolks by Paul Fleischman, students are given the following Target Task Writing Prompt: "How can one person impact a community?"
• In Science and Social Studies, Unit 1, Lesson 14, after reading “Broken Chains” a key question about key ideas is: "Using lemmings and arctic foxes as an example, describe how populations of predators and prey rise and fall regularly over time."
• In Science and Social Studies, Unit 3, Lesson 12, after reading Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice by Phillip Hoose, students are asked: "What central idea does the author convey in this chapter? How does the author convey the central idea? What does the central idea reveal about the author's perspective on segregation and social injustice?"

Details are analyzed throughout the Literature and Science and Social Studies components of this curriculum. Examples include:

• In Science and Social Studies, Unit 2, Lesson 6, after watching the video "Chicano! - The Struggle in the Fields" and reading the article "Bitter Harvest: LIFE with America's Migrant Worker, 1959", students are asked: "Using details from the video and pictures, describe the conditions for farm workers in California."
• In Literature, Unit 2, Lesson 3, after reading The Breadwinner, the students are asked the following key questions to analyze key details: "What does it mean to be resentful? Why was parvana sometimes resentful that she needed to get water? Describe the room where Parvana and her family live. How does the narrator's point of view influence what a reader knows about the setting? Describe Norma and Parvana's relationship. Who was Hossain? What happened to him?
• In Literature, Unit 3, Lesson 2, after watching the video, "Under the Cloak of Darkness," students are asked key questions and given Target Tasks including: "In what ways does Vermont's future depend on farming and the help of migrant workers? Describe the conditions for migrant workers in Vermont."

In addition, students analyze the author's craft in Literature and Science and Social Studies components. Examples include:

• In Science and Social Studies, Unit 1, Lesson 2, after reading Food Chains and Food Webs by Kira Freed, students are asked: "How does the diagram on page 9 help a reader better understand the connection between producers and consumers?"
• In Literature, Unit 4, Lesson 9, after reading One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia, students are asked: "Why does Sister Mukumbu include the example of the earth turning on its axis? What point is she trying to reinforce? Why does the author include this scene?"

In Literature and Social Studies and Science, students analyze text structure. Examples include:

• In Literature, Unit 1, Lesson 13, after reading Seedfolks by Paul Fleischman, the Target Task is: "Describe the overall structure of Seedfolks. How do different events fit together to relate the plot?"
• In Literature, Unit 2, Lesson 4, after reading The Breadwinner by Deborah Ellis, the students are asked: "Rewrite sections of The Breadwinner from another character's point of view. Compare and contrast Parvana's and Nooria's responses to Mrs. Weera. In what ways are their responses similar? Different? Why? How does this chapter fit into the overall structure of the text?"

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 5 meet the criteria that materials contain a coherently sequenced set of text-dependent questions and tasks that require students to analyze the integration of knowledge and ideas across both individual and multiple texts.

In most units, students have multiple opportunities to analyze across texts. Although not all units have multiple texts, students do have opportunities to analyze within those specific texts when they are the focus of the unit. Every lesson has a set of carefully sequenced key questions that increase in complexity both within the lesson and throughout the unit. Questions ask students to look into the text and consider why authors use specific text features, phrasing, and character/plot decisions. Sometimes the same questions are repeated in successive lessons for multiple texts over several days, leading to a complex or comparison question across all of the texts once they have been read. Target tasks also include discussion and writing prompts that ask students to dive a bit deeper on more summative ideas. The series of text-dependent questions provide deep analysis of individual texts and across different texts.

In Science and Social Studies, students analyze the integration of knowledge and ideas across both individual and multiple texts such as:

• In Unit 1, students learn about different ecosystems. In Lesson 12, students compare and contrast two apex predators and explain why they are important by using quotes and domain-specific vocabulary to explain the relationships between two or more specific ideas.
• In Unit 2, Lesson 12, students describe the characteristics of an influential leader such as Cesar Chavez, Dolores Huerta, and Larry Itliong. In Lesson 17, students analyze the pros and cons of using strikes and boycotts as forms of nonviolent protests using examples from multiple sources to support answers.
• In Unit 3, students read about the Civil Rights Movement. In Lesson 10, students use all of the unit texts to explain how the events of school integration, particularly the Little Rock Nine, illustrate the characteristics of youth involvement in the Civil Rights Movement as a whole. In Lesson 34, students synthesize information from the entire unit to create and execute a plan to fight injustice in their own community.
• In Unit 4, students learn about Mars and in Lesson 25, students decide how the point of view from each article influences the type of information the author includes.

In Literature, students analyze knowledge and the integration of ideas across individual and multiple texts such as:

• In Unit 1, students read Seedfolks and in Lesson 3, students compare and contrast Wendell and Gonzalo’s uncle’s reaction to the garden by using evidence from the text to compare and contrast characters and events.
• In Unit 2, students read The Breadwinner and in Lesson 25 students compare what they have read throughout the unit with what is portrayed in the news. In Lesson 26, students explain whether or not they think Malala is an ordinary girl using details from the texts they have read as well as the videos they have seen. They also explain if Malala from I am Malala and Parvana from The Breadwinner met, would they be friends.
• In Unit 3, Lesson 13, students defend if all members of the family in the book, Return to Sender, have equal amounts of hope and fear by paraphrasing and summarizing sections of the text in order to draw inferences and conclusions about key themes.
• In Unit 4, Lesson 19, students compare and contrast the narrator’s views from Brown Girl Dreaming and understanding of the revolution with Delphine and her sisters from One Crazy Summer.
• In Unit 5, students read excerpts from novels about survival. In Lesson 7, students compare and contrast excerpts from Julie of the Wolves and Endangered by analyzing the way they both approach the theme and topic of survival.
• In Unit 6, students read A Wrinkle in Time as well as the graphic novel and in Lesson 24, students compare and contrast the way the events are represented in the novel and in the graphic novel.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 5 meet the criteria that the questions and tasks support students’ ability to complete culminating tasks in which they demonstrate their knowledge of a topic through integrated skills (e.g. combination of reading, writing, speaking, listening).

Units in both Literature and Science and Social Studies have final projects that require students to demonstrate their knowledge of a topic. All units have a culminating project and the questions and tasks throughout the unit prepare the students for the final project. Sometimes the same writing task is given multiple times leading to the end of the unit. All of the questions and tasks support the integration of skills and knowledge by the end of the unit and provide students practice opportunities with a gradual building of expectations. The mini tasks embedded throughout the unit prepare the students for the final task, both by providing multiple opportunities for the same writing prompt with increasing expectations, and addressing the genre and daily series of text-dependent questions. There are reading, writing, and discussion (speaking and listening) elements throughout the units.

Examples of culminating tasks in which students demonstrate their knowledge of a topic through integrated skills in Science and Social Studies include:

• In Unit 1, students write a research report describing why a population of animals is declining and evaluate the different solutions that are currently in place by conducting a short research project and writing an informative text to examine the topic and convey the information clearly.
• In Unit 2, students also conduct a research report, but instead of being given the topic like in Unit 1, students can select their topic from a given list. This project requires students to conduct research and to write an essay with the information they obtain, and then create a presentation to share with the class. It involves reading, writing, and speaking skills.
• In Unit 3, students conduct another research report, and, instead of being given the topic like in Unit 1, students can select their topic from a given list like in Unit 2. This project requires students to conduct research and to write an essay with the information they obtain and then create a presentation to share with the class. It involves reading, writing, and speaking skills.

Examples of culminating tasks in which students demonstrate their knowledge of a topic through integrated skills in Literature include:

• In Unit 1, students write a chapter from Seedfolks from their own point of view. They need to include their interactions with other characters and the task requires students to demonstrate knowledge gained throughout the unit, and reading and writing are integrated to successfully complete this project.
• In Unit 2, the culminating task is for students to imagine that they have been hired as a writer for a magazine. They have to pick one of the major themes from the unit and write a magazine article that teaches others around the world about the theme. Questions and tasks to help students complete this culminating project are included in Lesson 17 when the class has a discussion of the themes that are present in the story, The Breadwinner.
• In Unit 3, students engage in a debate for the culminating task. On the first day, students are assigned different sides of the argument and begin building their arguments by gathering evidence and quotes from all unit sources. On the second day, students debate. On the third day, students write an essay arguing for the side they are on and include details from the unit and the debate.
• In Unit 4, students create a final version of their version of the novel One Crazy Summer, as Told by X. This requires students to demonstrate their knowledge of the text by comprehending the story and then writing their own version.
• In Unit 5, students write the next chapter from one of the stories from the unit. Students must integrate the reading skills with the writing skills learned in this unit to successfully show knowledge of the topic.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 5 meet the criteria that materials support students’ increasing writing skills over the course of the school year, building students’ writing ability to demonstrate proficiency at grade level at the end of the school year.

Materials support students’ increasing writing skills over the course of the school year. Writing demands in each unit increase. Materials also include spiraling lessons and differentiating for individual student needs. The Unit Summary and Teacher Intellectual Prep sections explain that over time, there is an increase in depth and expectations for student writing. Each unit summary specifies the writing focus of the unit and the expectations for students. Each Unit Overview also specifies expectations for student achievement and the focus for Areas of Correction. The units at the beginning of the year focus on quality sentences and paragraph writing, and gradually build throughout the year toward proficiency with essays. The use of evidence also evolves from students using direct quotations to citing to paraphrasing evidence. Support materials are included in the program as well to help teachers plan when to deliver a mini lesson and how to decide which correct area to provide. There is also a Writing Instruction Q & A that includes detailed information on how writing instruction is organized and distributed throughout the year and a rationale for why it is taught this way. This document explains that there are many short, targeted writing days that provide students practice and fluency with a specific writing genre. Teachers gather feedback and data on students’ understanding so the teacher can provide focus correction areas.

Writing instruction supports students’ growth in writing skills over the course of the school year, building students’ writing ability to demonstrate proficiency by the end of the year. Literature examples include:

• In Unit 1, students learn how to write strong paragraphs. Specifically students focus on writing a claim, details that support the claim, and a concluding sentence. Students are taught for the first time how to quote accurately from a text.
• In Unit 2, students begin to practice the habit of dissecting a prompt by breaking it into its parts to fully grasp the question. Students continue to practice writing clear thesis statements and supporting their claims with direct questions.
• In Unit 3, students focus on writing literary analysis with a clear and persuasive message. Students work on creating claims that connect to a given topic, take a clear position, support the claim with relevant text-based details and examples, and logically order the reasons to emphasize the main points and reasons.
• In Unit 4, students experiment with perspective taking as they narrate events through the eyes of Byron Watson. They focus on maintaining an appropriate tone that is true to the character while using sensory language to show rather than tell his experiences.
• In Unit 5, students refine their skills with writing literary analysis essays. No new skills are taught, but the teacher chooses focus correct areas to teach.

Examples of how writing progresses throughout the year in Science and Social Studies include:

• Unit 1 lays the foundation for writing in Grade 5. Students review the different components of a strong paragraph and the different types of paragraph structures that they can use. The year focuses a lot on research and this unit serves as an introduction. Students participate in a guided research project and then complete a semi-guided one in this unit.
• In Unit 2, students build on what they learned in Unit 1 by responding to an informational text and writing well-structured paragraphs using a variety of paragraph structures.
• Unit 3 builds on the writing done in Units 1 and 2. Students work on longer essays in response to a text and participate in their third research project.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 5 meet the criteria that materials include 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.

Materials provide research projects through Social Studies and Science units that provide research opportunities and analyze materials using multiple texts and materials. In some units there is one large project, and in others there are multiple smaller ones. Sometimes these projects are through hands-on learning lab experiences. Students are given opportunity to analyze topics through varied sources and experiences. The rigor of these projects build throughout the year, and, by the end of the year, projects are more independent and require deeper levels of research and analysis. All research projects are located in Science and Social Studies units.

Below are examples of research projects that encourage students to develop knowledge in a given area by confronting and analyzing different aspects of a topic using multiple texts and source materials in the Science and Social Studies units:

• In Unit 1, students pick another apex animal and write a research report describing why the population of the animal is declining. Time is spent on researching, sorting evidence, drafting, revising/editing, and then sharing. Mini lessons occur each day to help students master how to do research and how to turn facts into informational texts.
• In Unit 2, students pick a research topic from a list and research the topic, write an essay, and then create a presentation to share with the class. Topics include Filipino workers and Larry Itliong, Dolores Huerta and her continued influence, or Chicano art and the role of murals in the movement. Lessons include how to teach students to create research questions and use those questions to google and find information on the topic.
• In Unit 3, students pick a research topic from a list. Students research the topic, write an essay, and then create a presentation to share with the class.
• In Unit 4, students write the afterword of the text, The Mighty Mars Rovers, which the program defines as a research project. On the first day, students have to choose to research either Spirit or Opportunity and begin researching by finding press releases about the two missions.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 5 meet the criteria that materials provide a design, including accountability, for how students will regularly engage in a volume of independent reading either in or outside of class.

The Text Consumption Guidance document provides the rationale for independent reading and explains that during independent reading, students gain independence by reading a text on their own that requires them to use all of the strategies learned in class. During independent reading, students actively annotate and make meaning of the text with limited support from teacher or peers. The materials suggest that independent reading can be used at the end of the lesson as independent practice, on days when the majority of the text is accessible and/or there are features of the text students need to practice accessing independently, or at the beginning of the lesson to allow time for independent analysis before a close-read or a discussion.

In the Approach to Independent Reading Document provided it states, "students in grades 3-5 have an additional 45-60 minute independent reading block, as well as independent reading assigned daily for homework." The document also includes tables to give suggestions of how to accomplish independent reading during the school day, gradually increasing so that students can sustain independent reading for 6o minutes by the end of the school year. The document explains how a teacher should set up their classroom library and provides an independent reading weekly planning template with samples.

Teachers are also provided with grade-level aligned suggested independent reading lists for both literary and informational texts. There is guidance and protocols for hosting book clubs, book talks, and book reviews. A reading log is provided to keep track of the texts read. Sample prompts and log entries are provided. Protocol is provided for student/teacher conferences based on the reading logs.