8th Grade - Gateway 1

The instructional materials reviewed for Ready Grade 8 meet the expectations that they assess grade-level content. The program provides two versions (Form A and Form B) of Mid-Unit assessments, Interim assessments, and End of Unit assessments for each unit. The assessments are available online and in print format.

Assessments contain grade-level content questions. Examples of questions include the following:

• In Unit 4 Interim Assessment question 2, students find the volume of a sphere. Students are given the diameter, must identify the radius, substitute the value of r for the radius in the formula, and evaluate. (8.G.9)
• In Unit 5 End of Unit Assessment Form A question 3 Part A, students make a two-way table to display the results of a given survey with two categorical variables. (8.SP.4)

Overall, assessment items are aligned to Grade 8 standards.

The instructional materials reviewed for Ready Grade 8 meet expectations for spending a majority of instructional time on major work of the grade. To determine focus on major work, three perspectives were evaluated: the number of units devoted to major work, the number of lessons devoted to major work, and the number of instructional days devoted to major work. Of the three perspectives, the number of instructional days is most representative and was used to determine the score for this indicator.

• Grade 8 instruction is divided into five units. Unit 1 addresses 8.EE.A. Unit 2 addresses 8.F. Unit 3 addresses 8.EE.B and 8.EE.C. Unit 5 addresses 8.SP. Therefore, 4 out of 5 units, approximately 80 percent, focus on major work of the grade.
• Grade 8 instruction is divided into 31 lessons. Twenty-four out of 31 lessons, approximately 77 percent, focus on major work of the grade or supporting work connected to major work.
• Grade 8 instruction consists of approximately 139 instructional days. One hundred seventeen out of 139, approximately 84 percent, of the instructional days focus on major work of the grade or supporting work connected to major work.

The instructional materials reviewed for Ready Grade 8 meet expectations that supporting work enhances focus and coherence simultaneously by engaging students in the major work of the grade. Supporting standards/clusters are connected to the major standards/clusters of the grade.

Examples of the connections between supporting work and major work include the following:

• Unit 5 Lesson 30 Solve Problems with Linear Models (8.SP.3) is connected to the major work of functions (8.F.4). Students use equations to model linear relationships between two quantities to determine rate of change and initial value of functions.
• Unit 4 Lesson 24 Solve Problems Using the Pythagorean Theorem (8.G.7) is major work that is connected to supporting standard (8.NS.2) as students apply the Pythagorean Theorem to solve for missing side lengths and use square roots to solve these problems.

The instructional materials for Ready Grade 8 meet expectations that the amount of content designated for one grade level is viable for one year. As designed, the instructional materials can be completed in approximately 124 days with 15 additional days for assessment and diagnostics, for a total of 139 days. The suggested amount of time and expectations for teachers and students of the materials are viable for one school year as written and would not require significant modifications. According to the Teacher Guide page A44, each lesson is expected to last between 45 and minutes. Other lesson resources include Fluency Skills Practice, Practice and Problem Solving, Unit Opener Lessons, and Classroom Routine Lessons for the first 5 days, which is included in the total number of days for this program.

The instructional materials for Ready Grade 8 meet expectations for the materials being consistent with the progressions in the CCSSM Standards.

The instructional materials clearly identify content from prior and future grade levels and use it to support the progressions of the grade-level standards. Overall, the materials develop according to the grade-by-grade progressions in the standards. The instructional materials relate grade-level concepts explicitly to prior knowledge from earlier grades. Each unit begins with a Unit Opener progression overview chart. The Learning Progressions set a context for the standards of the lessons based on how the standard builds on prior knowledge from the previous grades. For example, in the Unit 3 Lesson 13 Overview, the Learning Progression states: “In Grade 7, students solved equations by applying the properties of operations. In this lesson, students extend their understanding of the process of solving equations. They solve equations with a variable on both sides of the equation.” The Learning Progression also includes connections between the lesson and future math instruction by stating, “In high school students will extend this concept to solve equations with two variables that have solutions that form a set of ordered pairs that can be plotted on a coordinate plane.” Additionally, prerequisite skills are connected to new skills and concepts in the Lesson Overview document through Small Group Differentiation and Personalized Learning Lessons.

In general, the instructional materials attend to the full intent of the grade-level standards by giving all students extensive work with grade-level problems. This is achieved through on-grade level problems in all lessons. In addition to the problems present in the Ready Instruction Book, there are on grade-level problems present in the Practice and Problem Solving Book. Additional practice with grade level content is provided in the Additional Fluency Practice section of the teacher website.

However, in some cases, students do not have adequate opportunities to practice with critical concepts. For example, Unit 3 Lesson 12 does not provide enough practice with deriving the equation y = mx for a line through the origin and the equation y = mx + b for a line intercepting the vertical axis at b in order to meet the full intent of Standard 8.EE.6.

The instructional materials for Ready Grade 8 meet expectations that materials foster 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 and problems and activities that 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.

Instructional materials are clearly shaped by the CCSSM cluster headings. The units are divided into grade-level domains, and Expressions and Equations is divided between Units 1 and 3. Grade 8 standards are clearly identified in the Table of Contents and on the Ready Mathematics Standards Correlations pages, which identify the lessons that address specific standards. Instructional materials shaped by cluster headings include the following examples:

• Unit 2 Lesson 10 Graphs of Functional Relationships is shaped by 8.F.B, use functions to model relationships between quantities.
• Unit 3 Lesson 11 Represent Proportional Relationships is shaped by 8.EE.B, understand the connections between proportional relationships, lines, and linear equations.
• Unit 4 Lesson 18 Understand Properties of Transformations is shaped by 8.G.A, understand congruence and similarity using physical models, transparencies, or geometry software.

Instructional 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 the connections are natural and important. At the end of every unit there is a Performance Task and/or Interim Assessment that connects two or more clusters in a domain. For example:

• Unit 2 Lesson 9 Analyze Linear Functions connects 8.F.B, use functions to model relationships between quantities, with 8.F.A, define, evaluate, and compare functions.
• Unit 3 Lesson 15 Understand Systems of Equations connects 8.F.B, use functions to model relationships between quantities, with 8.EE.C, analyze and solve linear equations and pairs of simultaneous linear equations.
• Unit 4 Performance Task connects 8.G.B, understand and apply the Pythagorean Theorem, with 8.NS.A, know that there are numbers that are not rational and approximate them by rational numbers.