4th Grade - Gateway 1
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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 instructional materials reviewed for Grade 4 meet the expectation for Gateway 1 focus and coherence. The majority of assessed content aligns to prior and/or current grade-level standards, and the majority of instructional time throughout the year is devoted to the major work of the grade. The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 4 meet the expectation for coherence. The materials use supporting content as a way to continue work with the major work of the grade. The materials include a full program of study that is viable content for a school year including 150 days of lessons and assessments. More should be done to support struggling students with grade level skills and understandings. These instructional materials are visibly shaped by the cluster headings in the standards. Connections are made between domains and clusters within the grade level. For instance, fraction work is connected to data and measurement lessons. Overall the Grade 4 materials meet the requirements of Gateway 1.
Criterion 1.1: Focus
The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 4 meet the expectations for focus within assessment. The majority of unit review/test items assess content from prior and/or current grade levels. There are instances of assessment items that do not align to grade-level expectations, but these items could be easily revised or removed by classroom teachers. Overall, the instructional materials meet the expectation for this indicator.
Indicator 1a
The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 4 meet the expectations for focus within assessment. The majority of unit review/test items included in the student activity books appropriately assess prior and/or current grade-level content, with few exceptions.
Points of discussion:
- Unit 1 review/test:
- Items 14-17 assess procedural skill with multi-digit addition and subtraction, which is a CCSSM-required fluency by the end of Grade 4 (4.NBT.B.4).
- Unit 4 review/test:
- Items 7-8 involve evaluating expressions with symbols. The listed test objective is “evaluate expressions and solve equations with parentheses” which the program connects to 4.NBT.B.4-6. Parentheses are not specifically mentioned in the CCSSM until 5.OA.A.1; however, these items could be considered Mathematically reasonable or omitted.
- Unit 5 review/test:
- Item 18 is a word problem involving finding a missing side length when given a rectangular area. If students used division to solve this problem, it would call for the use of a 2-digit divisor, which is beyond the scope of Grade 4. However, because this is a word problem with a measurement context and could be solved in a number of ways, it is an appropriate item.
- Units 6 and 7 review/tests:
- Unit 6 items 6, 9, 13, 15, 16, 20, 21 and unit 7 items 8, 16 include fractions with denominators outside the limits listed in the footnote for 4.NF, including sevenths, ninths, and fortieths. It is reasonable, and should be encouraged, that Grade 4 students explore fractions beyond these denominators during instruction to avoid limiting their thinking, and these above grade-level items could easily be omitted from assessments or edited.
*Evidence updated 10/27/15
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 4 meet the expectations for focus by spending the majority of the time on the major clusters of the grade. This includes cluster 4.OA.A, all clusters in 4.NBT and all clusters in 4.NF.
Indicator 1b
Instructional material spends the majority of class time on the major cluster of each grade.
The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 4 meet the expectations for focus by spending the majority of the time on the major clusters of the grade. This includes cluster 4.OA.A, all clusters in 4.NBT and all clusters in 4.NF.
- While some lessons include multiple standards, a large majority of the lessons are explicitly focused on major work.
- Units 1, 2, 3, 4, 6 and 7 devote all lessons to major work.
- Units 5 and 8 are additional and supporting work.
- Students work on place value, operations and application problem throughout the year.
- More than 70% of the lessons and assessments are focused on 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 4 meet the expectations for coherence. The materials use supporting content as a way to continue work aligned to the major work of the grade. The materials include a full program of study that is viable content for a school year including 150 days of lessons and assessments. This set of materials is consistent with the mathematical progression of learning set forth in the standards with a few exceptions. Support offered to help struggling students continue to work on grade level problems is inconsistent. Some include suggestions for lowering expectations to previous grade levels instead of supporting students with current grade level work. Minimal connections are made for the teacher within the lessons to prior knowledge from previous grades. These instructional materials are visibly shaped by the cluster headings in the standards. Connections are made between domains and clusters within the grade level. For example, work with fractions is connected to data and measurement lessons. Overall, the Grade 4 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 4 meet the expectations for their use of supporting content as a way to enhance coherence. For Grade 4, reviewers focused on the use of data, factors and multiples, and measurement and conversion of measurements as methods for supporting operations with whole numbers and fractions.
- Unit 4 connects 4.OA and 4.NBT.
- Units 5 and 7 make connections between data and work with fractions.
- Unit 6 uses fractions to continue work on line plots.
- Unit 5 makes connections between operations, place value and measurement conversions.
- Unit 5 also connects multiplication and division understanding to area and perimeter computations.
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 for Grade 4 meet the expectations for this indicator by providing a viable level of content for one school year.
- Materials provide for 150 days of instruction, quizzes, fluency checks and formal assessment.
- Most lessons are appropriate in length for Grade 4.
- Some lessons may take longer than indicated.
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 4 are consistent with the mathematical progressions in the standards, partially meeting the expectations for this indicator.
- Learning progressions for CCSSM are described at the beginning of each unit. This includes explicit connections to the mathematics of the unit.
- Lessons include fractions with denominators outside grade level expectations, so do not follow the progression in the standards.
- Students are given extensive time to work on grade level problems.
- Support offered to help struggling students continue to work on grade level problems is inconsistent. Some support includes suggestions for lowering expectations to previous grade levels instead of supporting students with current grade level work. This was found in units 1, 4 and 6. This was not identified as previous grade level work.
- Minimal connections are made for the teacher within the lessons to prior knowledge from previous grades.
- A progression chart including Grade 3 and Grade 5 content is included in the planning pages.
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 4 foster coherence through connections at the grade level.
- Examples were found within the "Lesson Focus" sections of language from the cluster headings.
- In unit 2, students are expected to use their understanding of place value and to solve real world problems.
- Connections are made in units 2, 4, 6 and 7 between 4.MD, 4.NF and 4.NBT.
- Connections are made in unit 8 between 4.NF and 4.MD using addition of fractions and angle measurement.