3rd Grade - Gateway 2

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 3 meet the criteria that texts are organized around a topic/topics to build students’ ability to read and comprehend complex texts independently and proficiently.

Each unit begins with a topic using weekly theme-based essential questions to explore the topic deeply. Five texts align and support the topic of the unit as well as multiple Book Club choices students can select. Reading Workshop texts provide another opportunity for students to participate in both Shared and Close Reading in order to complete lesson tasks and the culminating project. A variety of genres are used to explore a weekly question where students analyze, discuss, and synthesize information in order to demonstrate understanding of texts and topics. Each week students are encouraged to reflect and present evidence from multiple texts in order to demonstrate their knowledge gained from the unit tasks. As the year progresses, the complexity of the questions and tasks deepen and ongoing formative assessments allow for differentiation to ensure student proficiency as tasks become more rigorous. 

• In Unit 1, Unit Theme: Environments, the Essential Question is “How does our environment affect us?” Each week during the unit, a variety of texts are used to answer weekly questions around the theme.
• In Week 1, the text is Grandma and the Great Gourd and focuses on the weekly question, “How do people travel in different environments?” 
• In Week 2, the text is “Why the Sky is Far Away?” and focuses on the weekly question, “How do different cultures relate to their environment?”  
• In Week 3, the text is Cocolisco and focuses on the weekly question, “How can an environment affect lives and relationships?” 
• In Week 4, the text is Living in Deserts and focuses on the weekly question, “What creative solutions do people come up with to survive in their environment?” 
• In Week 5, the text is The Golden Flower and focuses on the Essential Question, “Why should we appreciate our environment?”
• In Unit 2, Unit Theme: Interactions, the Essential Question for the unit is “How do plants and animals live together?” The weekly texts are tied to the unit topic through focus questions each week.
• In Week 1, Reading Workshop, Shared and Close Read, Patterns in Nature by Jennifer Rozines Roy and Gregory Roy focuses on the weekly question, “How do patterns in nature help plants and animals?”
• In Week 2, Reading Workshop, Shared and Close Read, Weird Friends: Unlikely Allies in the Animal Kingdom by Jose Aruego and Ariane Dewey ties to the unit topic through the weekly question, “How do living things in a habitat support one another?”
• In Week 3, Reading Workshop, Shared and Close Read, Wolf Island by Celia Godkin connects to the topic using the weekly question, “How can a chain of events affect plants and animals?”
• In Week 5, Reading Workshop, Shared and Close Read, Nature’s Patchwork Quilt: Understanding Habitats by Mary Miché focuses on the weekly question, “Why is it important for plants and animals to depend on each other?”
• In Unit 5, Unit Theme: Solutions, the essential question for the unit is “How does the world challenge us?”. The weekly texts are tied to the unit topic through the weekly questions.
• In Week 1, the text is Deep Down and Other Extreme Places and it centers on the weekly question, “How can nature change people’s lives?”
• In Week 2, the text is Earthquakes Eruptions, and Other Events that Change Earth and it focuses on the weekly question, “How do changes on Earth affect the environment?”
• In Week 3, the text is A Safety Plan: In Case of an Emergency and it answers the weekly question, “What are some ways to prepare for an emergency?”
• In Week 4, the text is Nora’s Arc and it centers on the weekly question, “How should people respond during a disaster?”. 
• In Week 5, the text is from Aesop’s Fables and it focuses on the weekly question, “What can nature teach us about ourselves?”

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 3 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 materials, individual and groups of students have a variety of opportunities to build their understanding of the content in various ways within reading, reading-writing, and writing activities. The directions for student tasks are clear and contain language that relates to the content of the unit. In each of the units, students complete questions and tasks that require analysis of individual texts. Every text has text-dependent language support. Each unit contains Reading Workshop lessons with First Read, Close Read, and Reflect and Share sections. During all the first reads, students name the genre of the text and are required to provide evidence for their decision. Students complete questions and tasks that require analysis of individual texts. Students are provided multiple opportunities to analyze language of stories and passages, identify key ideas and details, and examine the structure of passages, pictures, and texts as they relate to the unit topic. In addition to the Reading Workshop, each unit contains a Reading/Writing Bridge that also presents opportunities for students to use their knowledge to demonstrate their understanding of texts and topics. 

Examples include, but are not limited to: 

• Unit 1, Week 2, Close Read, Vocabulary in Context, students read Why the Sky is Far Away and use context within the sentence to determine the meaning of "handsome" in paragraph three.
• In Unit 2, Week 1, Reading Workshop, after reading Patterns in Nature by Jennifer Rozines Roy and Gregory Roy, students answer, “Notice these words and how they help you identify the main idea and details; nature, patterns, repeat, sequence, symmetry. By the end of the text, what can the reader conclude about pattern rules? Underline the details that describe the pattern rule of color in paragraphs 19 and 20. How do these help you recognize the main idea? Highlight the evidence that helps you understand the main ideas and details. Use your background knowledge, or what you already know, about patterns to help you understand this detail.”
• In Unit 3, Week 3, Read Like a Writer, students read an excerpt from Little House on the Prairie and discuss how the author’s description of the setting influences the mood of the text.
• In Unit 4, Week 2, Readers Workshop, when reading an excerpt from Frederick Douglass by Josh Gregory, students answer, “Which evidence from the text can be used to prove that Douglass was an influential leader of the abolition of slavery. Underline sentences that help you identify how the feature, 'The Abolitionist Movement' relates to the main idea of the biography. Highlight details in Paragraph 5 and 6 that help you make inferences about how Douglass’s books and speeches affected people’s feelings about slavery.”
• In Unit 5, Week 2, after reading Earthquakes, Eruptions, and Other Events that Change the Earth, students underline sentence that help them recognize cause and effect text structure.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 3 meet the criteria that the questions and tasks support students’ ability to complete culminating tasks in which they demonstrate their knowledge of a topic (or, for grades 6-8, a theme) through integrated skills (e.g. combination of reading, writing, speaking, listening).

Reading and modeling of narrative, biography, informational, and opinion texts are included throughout the materials. Many culminating tasks rely on students’ ability to synthesize their understanding and use learned skills to present their knowledge in reading, writing, speaking, and listening tp demonstrate knowledge built from the texts. All units contain a Project-Based Inquiry task with an Area of Focus, where students compare across texts, include inquiry research, and have peer collaboration and discussions. The teacher may need to provide some extra support to assure students are focusing on the content as well as demonstrating writing or speaking skills. 

• Examples include, but are not limited to:
• In Unit 1, Week 6, students answer the Essential Question, “How does our environment affect us?” After answering the question, students complete a culminating task writing a letter to a local official explaining how safety can be improved in a local park. During completion of the project, students engage in research and multiple discussions with a peer. In preparation for this task, students engage in weekly discussions following their shared read, building knowledge and skills to complete the culminating task.
• In Week 1, students read The Boy’s Advice and discuss how the character used his words to influence others.
• In Week 2, students read Why the Sky is Far Away? and discuss how people relate to their environment and how different cultures affect their environments.
• In Week 3, students read Cocoliso and discuss how an environment can affect lives and relationships. 
• In Week 4, students read Living in Deserts and discuss what creative solutions people come up with to survive in challenging environments.
• In Week 5, students read The Golden Flower: A Taino Myth from Puerto Rico and discuss why people should appreciate their environment. 
• In Unit 3, Week 6, students answer the Essential Question, “What makes a hero?” After answering the question, students complete a culminating task: writing a speech on why it is important to take advantage of heroic opportunities, which they will present to their classmates. During completion of the project, students engage in research and multiple discussions with a peer. In preparation for this task, students engage in weekly discussions following their shared read, building knowledge and skills to complete the culminating task.
• In Week 1, students read Below Deck: A Titanic Story and discuss what makes a person a hero.
• In Week 2, students read Granddaddy’s Turn: A Journey to the Ballot Box and discuss how a hero’s actions can affect other people. 
• In Week 3, students read excerpts from By the Shores of Silver Lake and Little House on the Prairie and discuss how challenges turn ordinary people into heroes. 
• In Week 4, students read Mama Miti: Wangari Maathai and the Trees of Kenya and discuss why people need heroes. 
• In Week 5, students read multiple poems and discuss what kind of actions can be heroic.
• In Unit 5, Week 6 students answer the Essential Question, “How does the world challenge us?” After answering the question, students complete a culminating task creating a brochure to convince someone to visit, or not visit, a location. The brochure will be presented to the class. During completion of the project, students engage in research and multiple discussions with a peer. In preparation for this task, students engage in weekly discussions following their shared read building knowledge and skills to complete the culminating task. 
• In Week 1, students read Deep Down and other Extreme Places to Live and discuss how nature can change other people’s lives. 
• In Week 2, students read Earthquakes, Eruptions, and Other Events that Change Earth and discuss how changes on earth affect the environment. 
• In Week 3, students read A Safety Plan: In Case of Emergency and discuss ways people can prepare for an emergency. 
• In Week 4, students read Nora’s Ark and discuss how people should respond in an emergency. 
• In Week 5, students read Aesop’s Fox and discuss what nature can teach us about ourselves.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 3 meet the criteria that materials include a cohesive, year-long plan for students to interact with and build key academic vocabulary words in and across texts. 

Academic vocabulary is introduced, defined, discussed and presented throughout unit reading and writing tasks. Students preview vocabulary before reading the text and the teacher questions to determine what they know before reading and to connect to any prior knowledge. Questions and activities focusing on the unit academic vocabulary words are embedded in the instructional materials. There is a Possible Teacher Point during the Shared Read where teachers can use the Reading Writing Workshop Bridge to reinforce a vocabulary skill. During the Shared Read, there are opportunities for students to use context clues to determine the meaning of words. After the Shared Read, there is Develop Vocabulary time where students have an opportunity to apply their knowledge with the words they have learned in independent practices. Each unit is built around a specific topic allowing for the building of related vocabulary exposure, meaning, and connections to be made throughout the weeks of instruction, increasing students’ word knowledge across texts. 

• In Unit 1, Week 2, Reading Workshop, Shared Read, Respond and Analyze, students learn to use context within and beyond a sentence to determine the meaning of unfamiliar words and multiple meaning words. Students are told to locate the words, preparations, satisfied, rejoicing, magnificent, and brooded. Students then think about what the word means and determine what the author is trying to convey about a character or event by using that word.
• In Unit 2, Week 1, one of the identified vocabulary words is patterns. Students reread the first page in the shared reading text. Teachers are prompted to say, “Notice that the author mentions the word pattern four times. I believe that since Patterns in Nature is the title, our topic must be patterns. Do you notice any patterns in the picture of the geese in the grass?”
• In Unit 3, Week 5, Reading-Writing Workshop Bridge, Academic Vocabulary, students learn that some words can be used as multiple parts of speech and that context determines which part of speech is being used, as well as the words’ meaning. Students locate the word, command, and then look to see how it is used in the sentence. Students determine the word’s part of speech and meaning from how it is used in the sentence.
• In Unit 4, Week 5, the Student Interactive states, “For each sentence below, underline the form of the academic vocabulary word. Identify the word’s part of speech. Write your own sentence using a different form of the word. Identify the new part of speech. Use a print or digital dictionary as needed.”
• In Unit 5, Week 2, Reading Workshop, Respond and Analyze, students use newly acquired vocabulary words as text evidence as they write about characters and events in Aesop's Fox. They also find and list unfamiliar words in another scientific text, use words they know to determine the meaning, and then use each unfamiliar word in a new sentence.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 3 meet the criteria that materials include a cohesive, year-long plan to 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.

The Writing Workshop component has a weekly format that remains consistent in each unit throughout the year. Students are exposed to standards-based writing skill Minilessons that support progress toward independent writing. Lessons include modeled writing, shared writing, guided writing, and independent writing. In Week 1 of each unit, the students are immersed in and introduced to a genre of writing. In Week 2, students work on developing the elements of that genre. Week 3 concentrates on developing the structure of the writing. Week 4 contains lessons in author’s craft, and Week 5 focuses on publishing, celebrating, and assessing. The daily routines for each lesson contain a five to 15 minute Minilesson with 30-40 minutes of independent writing time, during which the teacher confers with students. During this time, students practice and refine their writing skills. Although the lesson format remains the same throughout the year, the Minilessons progress and students consistently learn more skills in order to demonstrate proficiency at grade level by the end of the school year. A gradual release model is used each week. First, the teacher models writing and think alouds to demonstrate the writing skills students need for the writing type. Next, students engage in shared writing, guided writing, and independent writing of the specific writing genre for the unit. As students develop their writing skills throughout the unit, they complete a writing prompt assessment that measures their ability to independently complete a written assignment that assesses all of the writing skills upon which they have been building. Examples include: 

• In Unit 1, Weeks 1-5, Writing Workshop, students learn about personal narratives. In Week 1, students are introduced to the elements of personal narratives, such as narrator and sequence of events, before brainstorming, setting a purpose, and starting the process of writing their own personal narratives. During Week 2, students focus on developing engaging ideas, composing a setting, adding details to the problem, and editing the resolution of their personal narratives. In Week 3, students compose an introduction for their personal narrative, develop an event sequence and dialogue, describe actions, thoughts, and feelings using details, and compose a conclusion for their personal narratives. During Week 4, students turn their attention to editing their work by looking for opportunities to add language components, such as coordinating conjunctions, comparative and superlative adjectives, pronouns, and adverbs. Students also make grammar edits by checking for subject-verb agreement in their writing. In Week 5, students edit their work to ensure it is legible and contains the correct verb tenses throughout, before publishing and celebrating their narratives. To evaluate students’ mastery of the skills learned throughout the unit, students also write a personal narrative in response to a prompt during the unit assessment.    
• In Unit 2, Weeks 1-5, Writing Workshop, students study how-to articles. During Week 1, students learn about the elements of how-to articles and practice composing a headline, lead, facts, and details, before brainstorming and setting a purpose in planning to write their own how-to article. As students begin to work on their drafts in Week 2, they focus on developing an engaging main idea and relevant details, adding facts and definitions, and writing the steps in their how-to article as commands. Students also use strong verbs to clarify each of the steps in their writing. In Week 3, students develop their introduction and organize ideas for how to finish the task in their article and use their ideas to write steps. Students then organize the sequence of their how-to article by grouping related information together. They add more details to their work by drawing illustrations to help readers understand the steps. During Week 4, students edit and revise their work. They edit for prepositions and prepositional phrases, nouns, adverbs, and coordinating conjunctions and they revise their writing for coherence and clarity. In Week 5, students continue to edit their work by checking to make sure their writing is legible and contains complete sentences with correct subject-verb agreement. Students publish and celebrate their how-to articles before responding to a prompt in which they must compose a how-to article for their end-of-unit writing assessment.             
• In Unit 3, Weeks 1-5, Writing Workshop, students explore historical fiction. During Week 1, students learn about the elements of historical fiction and engage in activities that support identifying characters and setting and developing plot within the genre before brainstorming ideas and planning to write their own historical fiction piece. In Week 2, students compose the characters and setting, establish the problem, plan the resolution, and select a genre by thinking about the purpose, audience, and topic for their writing. Students continue their composition work in Week 3 by developing an introduction, drafting their event sequence, creating an audio recording of their story, composing dialogue, and describing events with details. During Week 4, students begin to edit and revise their work. They edit for capitalization, verbs, and subjective, objective, and possessive pronouns and revise by adding and deleting ideas for clarity and coherence. In Week 5, students wrap up their editing, focusing on punctuation marks, prepositions, and prepositional phrases, publish and celebrate their pieces, and prepare for their end-of-unit writing assessment, during which students respond to a prompt to compose a historical fiction story.   
• In Unit 4, Weeks 1-5, Writing Workshop, students learn about opinion writing. During Week 1, students are introduced to the elements of opinion essays and they engage in practice activities that focus on the topic and the point of view and reasons of opinion writing before brainstorming topics, focusing on opinions, and planning their opinion essays. In Week 2, students develop the topic, opinion, reasons and supporting facts for their essay and they practice distinguishing between fact and opinion. During Week 3, students compose the introduction and conclusion for their opinion piece and organize the supporting reasons and facts of their essay. They also use technology to type and print a draft of their opinion essay to share with everyone in their Writing Club. In Week 4, students move into the revision and editing portion of the writing process by adding linking words and details to their essay, editing for capitalization, participating in peer editing, and using peer and teacher suggestions to improve their writing. During Week 5, students use technology to publish their writing and edit for spelling using spelling rules that they have learned and a print or online dictionary. After students publish and celebrate their opinion essays, they prepare for the end-of-unit writing assessment, during which they respond to a prompt to write an opinion essay.           
• In Unit 5, Weeks 1-5, Writing Workshop, students focus on poetry. In Week 1, students learn about what poetry sounds and looks like and they brainstorm ideas to plan their own poetry writing. During Week 2, students engage in a series of practice activities to support the poetry writing they will do later in the unit. They practice composing like a poet and composing with imagery, rhythm and rhyme, alliteration, and figurative language. In Week 3, students draft poetry using line breaks and stanzas, select a topic and a genre, revise for word choice focusing on verbs, create an audio recording, and create a visual display by looking at elements such as word placement, lines on the page, colors, pictures, special lettering, and lines that form a shape. During Week 4, students revise their drafts for structure and rearrange ideas for coherence and clarity. They also edit their poem for nouns, comparative and superlative adjectives, and punctuation marks. In Week 5, students finish revising and editing their work, focusing on coherence and clarity during revision and adjectives and adverbs during editing. Once students have published and celebrated their poems, they prepare for their end-of-unit writing assessment, during which they write a poem in response to a prompt.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 3 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.

Each unit has an Essential Question which is supported by a theme, additional weekly Essential Questions, and a variety of multi-genre texts. During Week 6, a Project-Based Inquiry task occurs using anchor texts, Book Club texts, and additional research. Students work both independently and collaboratively to complete this project. It is within the Project-Based Inquiry that students research and develop applicable “real world” products, such as opinion letters, scrapbooks, speeches, informational posters, and brochures. In order to complete these projects based on the theme of the unit, students are required to research, analyze, and synthesize information for this culminating activity. Throughout the Workshops in the weeks building to the final project, students engage in a progression of tasks that build their knowledge through reading, writing, speaking, and listening skills. 

• In Unit 1, Week 6, the Project-Based Inquiry contains five lessons: “Lesson 1: Gather background information from research articles. Lesson 2: Use field research to conduct research. Lesson 3: Use primary and secondary sources to refine research. Lesson 4: Write a thank you note to extend research. Lesson 5: Present and reflect on research results.” The Teacher's Edition states, “Have students discuss their ideas for identifying and gathering information from different sources at the site. Have student teams discuss the information and why the information will be important to their project. Once students have collected information on the park or playground they want to improve, they should begin to write a first draft of their letters. As students begin writing, they should demonstrate understanding of the information given.”
• In Unit 2, Week 6, students research plant and animal relationships and create a scrapbook about a plant and animal relationship. Students read “Relationships in Nature,” “Why We Need Plants,” and “Coral Reefs: Living Environments,” in addition to conducting additional research on the topic. Students then create their scrapbook, including citing sources before sharing the project with classmates.
• In Unit 3, Week 6, the Project-Based Inquiry contains five lessons: “Lesson 1: Gather background information from research articles. Lesson 2: Use search engines to conduct research. Lesson 3: Use paraphrasing and quoting to refine research. Lesson 4: Incorporate media to extend research. Lesson 5: Present and reflect on research results.” The Teacher's Edition states, “Distribute copies of ‘A Helping Hand.’ Use the research article to provide practice in paraphrasing and quoting a source. Have student pairs work together to paraphrase and quote facts from the article on a separate sheet of paper.” The Student Interactive states, “With your partner, discuss what types of media could support your claim or make your speech more persuasive. Take notes on your research and describe how the media could strengthen your speech.”
• In Unit 4, the unit Essential Question is “How do communities change over time?” During Week 6, students use knowledge from anchor texts, Book Club, and additional research to complete a research-based project connecting to the theme, Events. The students will need to further research the past and present of a town before completing the final project. The final project is broken into five separate lessons. A  four-point rubric is provided for students and teachers to understand the components needed in the final culminating, research project.
• In Unit 5, Week 6, Project-Based Inquiry, contains five lessons. “Lesson 1: Gather background information from research articles. Lesson 2: Use book marking to conduct research. Lesson 3: Use works cited to refine research. Lesson 4: Include a slide show to extend research. Lesson 5: Present and reflect on research results.” The Teacher's Edition states, “Have students work together to generate questions they would like to answer about places affected by natural disasters. Tell students that they will work to answer their questions when they conduct research.” The Student Interactive states, “With your partner review your research plan and go online to bookmark Web pages with the most valuable information for your brochure. Take notes as you conduct research. Be careful not to copy words or ideas, which is plagiarizing. To avoid plagiarism, retell ideas in your own words, which is paraphrasing.”

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 3 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 materials provide opportunities for students to use anchor texts and Book Club texts during Reading Workshop. Leveled Readers support the instruction for the unit and student’s comprehension. Reading supports are available in the Getting Started Program Overview to assist teachers in guiding students to become independent readers. In the beginning of each Introduce the Unit section, the Student Interactive contains an Independent Reading Log, in which students track the date, book, genre, pages read, and minutes read. There is also a place called My Rating, in which students rate the book using a star system. Additionally, students conference with the teacher for three to five minutes at different points each week to discuss specific aspects of what they are reading. Book Club meets twice a week during Small Group time. Students complete an information sheet for Book Club that they use when meeting with their group. Students are expected to finish reading their Book Club book within 10 days. Students document their noticings, connections, and wonderings about their Book Club book daily. There are lessons for free reads that guide students and teachers during independent reading and a pacing guide and lessons for Book Club. Students are to read their Book Club book outside and inside of class in order to keep up with session requirements.

• In Unit 1, Week 1, Introducing the Unit, “Reading is a skill that gets better with practice. In this unit, you will read with your teacher. You will also choose texts to read independently. Step 1: Establish a purpose for reading by asking yourself the following questions. Then set your purpose by writing it in your notebook.” During Small Group, Teacher-Led, Independent/Collaborative time (20-30 minutes), there are nine options for teachers and students: Guided Reading/Leveled Readers, Conferring, Strategy Group, ELL Targeted Support, Intervention Activity, Independent Reading, Literacy Activities, Partner Reading/Activities, and Book Club. 
• In Unit 2, Week 4, Reading Workshop, Conferring, students read a self-selected persuasive text and confer with the teacher to discuss the persuasive text structure the author used in their book and explain how it helps support the author’s opinion. Possible conference prompts are offered for the teacher.
• In Unit 3, Week 5, Independent Reading, the Teacher's Edition states, “Students can: Re-read or listen to the infographic, 'Acting Heroically,' with a partner, read a self-selected text, [or] reread or listen to their leveled reader.”
• In Unit 4, Teacher's Edition, five opportunities are available for students to participate in Book Club. Each week contains a summary, guidelines, and protocols for both the teacher and student to have a successful Book Club. The texts for Book Club connect to the theme and each of the anchor texts for the week. Protocols are available for the students to complete during independent reading and before group discussions. There are also checkpoints for understanding regarding student progress towards their comprehension. 
• In Unit 5, Week 2, Independent Reading, The Teacher's Edition states, “Students can: Reread or listen to Earthquakes, Eruptions, and Other Events that Change Earth or the myFocus Reader text. Read a self-selected trade book or their Book Club text, [or] partner read a text asking each other questions about the book.”