4th Grade - Gateway 2

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 4 partially meet the criteria that texts are organized around a topic/topics (or, for grades 6-8, topics and/or themes) to build students’ ability to read and comprehend complex texts independently and proficiently.

The eight units contain themes and topics. Over the course of four weeks per unit, students participate in listening, reading, writing, and discussing around a science or social studies topic and Big Question. The science units help to build knowledge, but the social studies units are more skill-based and focus around a theme instead of a topic. There are National Geographic videos to build background knowledge for the unit.

The following units explore science content and each week of the unit has a different topic related to the overarching topic. 

• In Unit 3, the overall topic is “Amazing Places” with a Big Question of “Why learn about other places?”. Over the four weeks, students read a fiction tale, poems, a social studies article, a profile, and a magazine article to address the Big Question. Students use the texts to learn about the following skills: theme, visualize, compare figurative language, elements of a poem, make connections, main idea and details, compare text features, and explain with details and examples. To wrap-up the unit, students share their ideas about answering the Big Question through writing an advertisement, building a model, playing a game, or writing a postcard. The following topics are focused on each week: Week 1: Imagining the World, Week 2: Imagining the World, Week 3: Distant Lands, and Week 4: Exploring Earth’s Extremes.
• In Unit 4, the overall topic is “Power of Nature” with a Big Question of “How do we relate to nature?”. Over four weeks, students read a science article, a persuasive text, a persuasive essay, a tall tale, poems, and a myth to address the Big Question. Students use the texts to learn the following skills: cause and effect, ask questions, compare genres, explain uses of reasons and evidence, problem and solution, compare figurative language, and mythical word origins. To wrap-up the unit, students share their ideas about answering the Big Question through writing a poster, giving a weather report, talking about parks, or writing a poem. The following topics are focused on each week: Week 1: Weather, Week 2: Water, Week 3: People and the Environment, and Week 4: People and the Environment.
• In Unit 5, the overall topic is “Invaders!” with a Big Question of “When do harmless things become harmful?”. Over the four weeks, students read science fiction, a science experiment, a persuasive text, a science text, a journal, and laboratory journals to address the Big Question. Students use the texts to learn about the following skills: plot, make inferences, compare author’s purpose, explain persuasive purpose and language, problem and solution, ask questions, compare figurative language, and explain relationships among concepts. To wrap-up the unit, students share their ideas about answering the Big Question through writing a play, planting seeds, talking about invasive plants and animals, or writing about a science experiment. The following topics are focused on each week: Week 1: Scientific Investigations, Week 2: Scientific Investigations, Week 3: Ecosystems and Change, and Week 4: Animals in Ecosystems.
• In Unit 7, the overall topic is “Moving through Space” with a Big Question of “What does it take to explore space?”. Over the four weeks, students read a math article, a science report, a blog, realistic fiction, a biography, and firsthand and secondhand accounts to address the Big Question. Students use the texts to learn about the following skills: compare and contrast, synthesize, compare fact and opinion, explain uses of reason and evidence, plot, compare fiction and biography, and compare and contrast accounts. To wrap-up the unit, students share their ideas about answering the Big Question through writing a story; modeling the Earth, Sun, and Moon; giving an interview; or making a packing list. The following topics are focused on each week: Week 1: Forces and Motion, Week 2: Moon, Space, and Stars, Week 3: Exploring Space, and Week 4: Exploring Space.

Other units that are the social studies texts focus more on skills and strategy and are centered around a theme. Examples of text sets focused on thematic learning that support students skills and strategy development, but do not build knowledge on a topic or set of topics include:

• In Unit 1, the overall theme is “Living Traditions” with a Big Question of “How important are traditions?”. Over four weeks, students read an interview, biographies, a folktale, a magazine article, and a personal narrative to address the Big Question. Students use the texts to learn the following skills: main idea and details, preview and predict, author’s purpose, plot, monitor and clarify, and setting. To wrap-up the unit, students can share their ideas about answering the Big Question through starting a new tradition, sharing a game or song, writing a column, or making a time capsule.
• In Unit 6, the overall theme is “Treasure Hunter” with a Big Question of “Why do we seek treasure?”. Over four weeks, students read plays, an instructional text, a history article, and online articles to address the Big Question. Students use the texts to learn the following skills: characters, determine importance, compare texts, compare oral and print information, sequence, compare media texts, and explain features. To wrap-up the unit, students share their ideas about answering the Big Question through making a comic book, making a time capsule, creating a talk show, or writing a pirate journal.
• In Unit 8, the overall theme is “Saving a Piece of the World” with a Big Question of “What’s worth protecting?”. Over four weeks, students read historical fiction, a report, online articles, a personal narrative, a historical narrative, and proverbs to address the Big Question. Students use the texts to learn the following skills: goal and outcome, choose reading strategies, determine main idea, fact and opinion, use reading strategies, and proverb. To wrap-up the unit, students share their ideas about answering the Big Question through write a letter, sharing a superhero fantasy, making an ad, or having a debate.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 4 partially 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).

At the end of each unit in Grade 4, students complete unit projects. Students have a choice of four different projects that they can choose from; however, only some of the projects require students to demonstrate knowledge of a topic through integrated skills. Students have choice in which project they complete and students may elect the projects that do not require knowledge from the unit.

For example:

• In Unit 1, students learn why traditions are important; however, many of the choices require students to discuss or write about traditions in their own family, which require background knowledge, and not knowledge from the unit. Project choices include:
• Students tell a partner about a new tradition they want to start in their family.
• Students share a game or song that they have learned from an older family member. They teach it to their classmates.
• Students write how someone could be a good husband or wife in an advice column. Students include advice for choosing the right person to marry.
• Students make a time capsule for younger family members. They write and draw to teach them about the family’s most important traditions. 
• In Unit 3, students learn about other places and why it is important to learn about other places. Some choices students could use background knowledge to complete the tasks. Project choices include:
• Students write an advertisement for a place they think is amazing. They describe the place and give people reasons to visit. It does not specify that the place has to be from the unit.
• Students give clues about a famous place and classmates have to guess what the place is.
• Students build a model of an amazing place that they learned about in the unit.
• Students pretend they are visiting an amazing place and create a postcard about it for a friend. They draw a picture on the front and write a note on the back.
• In Unit 5, students learn when harmless things become harmful. Before beginning the project choices students discuss the Big Question and write a paragraph about one way that harmless things become harmful. Some of the project choices require an integration of skills to demonstrate knowledge, but other projects do not require skill or knowledge from the unit. Project choices include:
• Students write a short play based on the text, The Fungus That Ate my School.
• Students plant different kinds of seeds and keep a log to see which ones grow fastest.
• Students make up a story about an invasive plant or animal. They tell their story to a partner and then retell their partner’s story to the class. This choice integrates reading, writing, speaking, and listening.
• Students make up a science experiment to test an idea. They write instructions for the experiment and include drawings.
• In Unit 7, students learn what it takes to explore space. The whole class begins the culminating task by writing a note to a friend explaining whether they would like to explore space and why, which does not necessarily require students to demonstrate their knowledge of the topic. The following project choices include some options that require demonstration of knowledge and others that do not. Project choices include:
• Students write a story about a fast-moving creature by thinking about how the creature uses speed to do things.
• Students imagine they are the first person on the moon and give an interview to tell about their experience.
• Students work with a small group to show how the earth moves around the sun. They then show how the moon revolves around the earth.
• Students create a packing list for a trip to the moon and must include things they would need for personal reasons and to study the moon.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 4 partially 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 include multiple and varied opportunities for both on-demand and process writing tasks that span the year’s worth of instruction. Students write daily through multiple means, such as one minute power writing, writing about what they read, and writing to improve grammar.  Students also write on Day 5 of small group reading time. Students participate in a week-long writing project each week; however, not all writing tasks increase in rigor from the beginning to the end of the school year. Week-long writing projects are introduced during the fourth week of every unit, but the same routine happens each week, with a different writing prompt. Each writing project begins with students studying a model, prewriting and completing a RAFT, drafting, revising, editing, and publishing.

Daily writing skills lessons do not consistently increase in rigor or lead to students independently demonstrating grade level proficiency by the end of the year. The same guidance and supports are provided throughout the year. Each week students write each day, but the progression of writing lessons do not increase in rigor, and at times the skills do not connect across the days to support increasing independence. Examples include:

• In Unit 2, Week 1, students write a paragraph about a character’s traits. On Day 2, students write a paragraph about how a connection helps them understand the story. Then on Day 3, students write another paragraph about a character’s traits and on Day 4, students write an animal description. On Day 5, students revisit pictures in the story and write an email giving their opinion with reasons.
• In Unit 5, Week 3, Day 1, students write about an environmental problem. On Day 2, students write about inferences they make when they read. On Day 3, students write a paragraph about a plant or animal found near the school using a topic sentence, while on Day 4 students write about an invasive species. Then on Day 5, students generate four research questions they would like to know the answer to about an invasive species.
• In Unit 8, Week 2, Day 1, students begin by writing advertisements of a product of their choice. On Day 2, students write their opinions about the text, Saving Bison from Extinction. On Day 3, students focus on using past-tense verbs, both regular and irregular, while they write using as many Key Words as possible about the way the people in the texts work to save the bison. Students then spend Day 4 writing a paragraph that compares the main idea of Protecting Asian Elephants with the Big Question of the unit, but no emphasis is placed on the previous day grammar lesson. Finally, on Day 5, students write a comparison among the main ideas of Buffalo Music, Saving Bison from Extinction, and Protecting Asian Elephants. This writing prompt is supported by the writing assignments on Days 2 and 4 but not Days 1 and 3.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 4 partially 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.

Independent reading is mentioned in this program; however, materials do not include a plan for how it is implemented and a system for accountability for how students will engage in a volume of independent reading both inside and outside of the classroom. While all the information for independent reading is found in the Small Group Reading Guide, materials do not explain when this should occur in or outside of the classroom nor for how long each day. There is no recording device provided nor accountability for how much students read or how well students read.

The Teacher Edition provides an independent reading routine, but it does not include specific information. It suggests that teachers select topics and provide a rich collection of books to choose from, though teachers need to select these books. Recommended Books for each unit are listed in the Teacher  Edition and are identified by fiction and nonfiction, and are connected to the overall unit and topic/theme. It is suggested that the books include known texts, classroom favorites, and picture books. Students should be supported in selecting their books of interest for independent reading according to the Teacher Edition, but how a teacher should do this is not explicitly stated. After independent reading, materials suggest that students should share their reading experiences and summarize what they read. Teachers are encouraged to extend the independent reading by giving extension activities such as rewriting the story with a different ending or writing a letter to the author.