The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 6 partially meet the expectations for the supporting content enhancing focus and coherence simultaneously by engaging students in the major work of the grade. To determine this, we considered the connections that the Teacher Guide stated and looked at the student lessons to validate those as well as determine if there were missed opportunities to make strong connections.

Some examples include:

· The strongest support comes from geometry and statistics supporting the major work of Expressions and Equations. Units 13 (Statistics), 15 (Circumference and Area), and 16 (Surface Area) support 6.EE.A and 6.EE.B. All of these require the students to use formulas/equations to solve problems.

· Unit 16 (Surface Area) also requires students to understand ratio concepts (6.RP.A).

• There were several instances where the supporting work missed opportunities to connect to major work. Two examples that could have easily been connected to distribution include: in Unit 1 where they use the area model and in Unit 2 where they use GCF to rewrite expressions.
• Most of the connections made with supporting work were 6.NS.B, which is computing with multi-digit numbers; this was a weak connection to the major clusters for the grade.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 6 partially meet the expectations for the amount of content designated for one grade level being viable for one school year in order to foster coherence between grades.

The Teacher’s Guide offers six different pacing plans, three for traditional schedule and three for block schedules.

• Each has the Modified Plan for students who require extensive review.
• Option 2 is the Basic Plan for students who require some review.
• Last is the Enriched Plan where students only need minimal review.
• All of them plan for 32 weeks of instruction.

We used the Traditional Enriched Plan for our review since it best represented a focus on grade-level work.

The pacing provided by the publisher is reasonable for lessons to be completed in the time suggested.

• Lessons plus a catch-up day (built into each unit) and the assessment day equal 156 days.
• Viable for one school year.
• Falls within the 140-190 range suggested.
• According to the Scope and Sequence, all Grade 6 standards are included.

However, there are several concerns:

• Due to the extensive time spent on reviewing concepts from Grades 4 and 5, there is significant concern that the depth of learning would not adequately prepare students for the next grade level.
• Due to the amount of the materials that address standards from previous grades, students could move more quickly through the materials than the time allotted, which would lead to a need to provide supplemental materials.
• The packets take a surface approach to standards – they meet the standard, but without developing the depth of understanding that allows students to apply and transfer the learning.
• In addition, there is concern about the three pacing suggestions.
  • Students needing more review early in the year spend equal or less time on Units later in the year, which is new material.
  • It does not seem reasonable that students who need Modified Plan A could finish all packets in the same amount of time as students on Enriched Plan C, though there are suggestions about items that could be omitted.

Overall, the number of days suggested is viable, but the depth and pacing creates cause for concern.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 6 partially meet the expectations for the material to be consistent with the progressions in the standards. Content from prior grades is clearly identified, although materials do not always relate grade-level concepts explicitly to prior knowledge from earlier grades within each lesson. More often, it is used as a review rather than a building block for grade-level work. Connections are not made to content in future grades. Overall, though, the materials in Grade 6 identify the progressions from prior grades in the standards.

• The teacher guide includes a page delineating how the major work standards for Grade 6 intersect with major clusters in Grades 4-8.
• Each packet lists an overview of standards being addressed including foundational standards that have been taught and learned previously.
• Connections to lessons and/or topics from previous grade levels that will be helpful in upcoming lessons are frequently reviewed in the “warm-up” at the beginning of a given topic, though no explicit connections are made for the students.
• In general, lessons are taught as a series of three, where each builds or connects to the one before.
• Teachers are provided with sufficient information to help see the connections in the standards, tasks, packets and lessons.
• There are standards where the materials are only partially representative of the progressions. For example: 6.EE is in seven units (Units 1, 2, 9, 10, 13, 14 and 16), but the depth is very limited because students are not developing equations. Students do spend a great deal of guided time writing and solving expressions and equations. However, not much time is spent with application of these skills with real-world problems, except in Unit 16.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 6 partially meet the expectation of giving all students extensive work with grade-level problems. Overall, the materials do not consistently give students of varying abilities extensive work with grade-level problems.

• The materials do not provide students with extensive work with grade-level problems; Not all students have the opportunity to engage deeply with problems related to grade-level standards as the material is not as rigorous as needed and doesn't have depth that is needed to truly master the standards.
• Each packet primarily contains problem sets designed to help develop students' procedural skill/fluency.
• Some of the performance tasks and proficiency assessments do allow for more application and rigorous engagement with the standards.
• It is recommended in the teacher's guide that struggling students spend the majority of time on basic lessons, skill builders, and review and to avoid extensions and more challenging questions. This is limiting their interaction and mastery of grade-level standards.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 6 partially meet the expectation of relating grade-level concepts explicitly to prior knowledge from earlier grades. Overall, materials only generally relate grade-level concepts explicitly to prior knowledge from earlier grades.

• Each module lists the foundational standards at the beginning of the module to connect prior learning to current learning.
• Educators find it beneficial to see these connections listed in the lessons as they occur.
• Connections to lessons and/or topics from previous grade levels that will be helpful in upcoming lessons are frequently reviewed in the “warm-up” at the beginning of a given topic, though no explicit connections are made for the students.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 6 partially 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.

• Each packet lists the lessons with the student outcomes clearly stated, which are easily aligned to CCSSM standards and cluster headings.
• In general, about half of the lessons and tasks require students to demonstrate grade-level standards. However, they rarely connect these concepts beyond what naturally occurs with lessons following one another. In addition, they are very introductory, surface level of depth.
• The teacher guide provides a page of content emphasis by cluster.
• Each packet identifies the standards addressed and bolds the major cluster.

The instructional materials include problems and activities that serve to connect two or more clusters in a domain. They include problems and activities that connect two or more domains in a grade, in cases where these connections are natural and important. Overall, the materials only partially foster coherence through connections at Grade 6.

• In packets 9, 10 and 14, students have opportunities to work with expressions and equations using fractions and decimals. (6.NS, 6.EE). In general, however, there is limited focus on writing expressions and equations.
• There are other natural connections evident such as using formulas to solve problems (6.EE.B, 6.G.A) and students solve problems on ratio and rate using the understanding of writing and solving equations. (6.RP.A, 6.EE.C)
• In Grade 6 students should have the opportunity to begin developing proportional reasoning and doing that in connection with graphing. They should be able to connect proportional reasoning to representing quantitative relationships between dependent and independent variables, and they should be provided opportunities to plot rational numbers in the coordinate plane as they analyze proportional relationships. Only in Unit 16 are they provided these opportunities. Because there is such heavy emphasis on review from prior grade levels, there is not enough time in the program to make these deep connections.