1st Grade - Gateway 1

The instructional materials reviewed for Ready Grade 1 meet the expectations for assessing grade-level content. There are two versions (Form A and Form B) of the Mid-Unit Assessment and Unit Assessment for each of the seven units.

Mid-Unit and Unit Assessments are available online and contained grade-level content questions. Examples of questions include the following:

• Unit 1 Unit Assessment Form A Problem 9 asks students to solve the following: “There are 10 flags, 8 are white. The rest are blue. How many are blue? ____ flags are blue. Use pictures, numbers, or words to show your thinking.” (1.OA.1)
• The Unit 5 Mid-Unit Assessment Form A Problem 7 states the following: "Boom has 2 bags of marbles and 2 more marbles. Buzz has 1 bag of marbles and 12 more marbles. Each bag has 10 marbles. Do Boom and Buzz have the same number of marbles? Circle Yes or No. Use pictures, numbers, or words to show your thinking.” (1.NBT.4)

Overall, assessment items are aligned to Grade 1 standards.

The instructional materials reviewed for Ready Grade 1 meet the expectations by spending the majority of class time on the major clusters of the grade. This includes all the clusters in 1.OA and 1.NBT along with 1.MD.A. 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 1 instruction is divided into seven units. Units 1 through 5 address 1.OA and 1.NBT, and half of Unit 7 addresses 1.MD.A. Therefore, 5.5 out of 7 units, approximately 79 percent, focus on major work of the grade.
• Grade 1 instruction is divided into 34 lessons. Twenty-eight out of 34 lessons, approximately 82 percent, focus on major work of the grade.
• Grade 1 instruction consists of approximately 175 instructional days. Approximately 148 out of 175, approximately 85 percent, of the instructional days focus on major work of the grade.

The instructional materials reviewed for Ready Grade 1 meet the expectations for supporting content enhancing focus and coherence simultaneously by engaging students in the major work of the grade.

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

• In Unit 7 Lesson 30 students use addition to determine the total number of responses represented in a picture graph (1.MD.4) and solve an addition equation to represent the total number of responses represented in a picture graph (1.OA.6),
• In Unit 7 Lesson 34 on telling and writing time (1.MD.B), students practice reading numbers on digital and analog clocks (1.NBT.A) in order to write the correct time.

The instructional materials reviewed for Ready Grade 1 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 suggested pacing includes 159 days of lessons and another 16 days for assessment, making 175 days of materials. According to the Teacher Guide, pages A38-A39, each lesson is expected to last between 30-45 minutes.

The instructional materials reviewed for Ready Grade 1 meet the expectation for being consistent with the progressions in the standards. Content from prior grades is identified or connected to grade-level work, and students are given extensive work with grade-level problems.

Overall, materials develop according to the grade-by-grade progressions in the Standards. Typically, material related to prior and future grades is clearly identified or related to grade-level work. One exception is Unit 4 Lesson 18 where students count by 2’s and 5’s (2.NBT.2).

The materials relate grade-level concepts to prior knowledge from earlier grades. Each Lesson Overview provides a Learning Progression. The Learning Progression explains connections between prior grades and the lesson. For example, in Unit 4 Lesson 17 the progression states, “In Kindergarten children count by tens to 100 and write numbers to 20, observing place value.” Additionally, each unit begins with a progression overview document. This document connects grade level concepts to specific standards from prior grades, and this document also connects grade-level concepts to future standards. Student prior knowledge is activated and connected to new skills and concepts on the first day of each lesson in Use What You Know. For example, in Unit 3 Lesson 15 students are making tens to add three addends (1.OA.2).

The instructional materials provide given extensive work with grade-level problems. Lessons provide grade-level problems for students. Students spend four or five days in a lesson working with grade-level standards. During modeled and guided instruction, students explore ways to solve problems using multiple representations and prompts to reason and explain their thinking. The guided practice allows students to solve problems and discuss their solution methods. The independent practice provides students the opportunity to work with problems in a variety of formats to integrate and extend concepts and skills. The Practice and Problem Solving Guide provides additional practice problems for each of the lessons, and the back of the Practice and Problem Solving Guide provides problems for additional skills practice. Each lesson also has math center activities which provide additional practice with grade-level problems.

The instructional materials reviewed for Ready Grade 1 meet the expectations for fostering coherence through connections at a single grade, where appropriate and when the standards require. Overall, materials include learning objectives that are visibly shaped by CCSSM cluster headings. Problems and activities are provided that connect two or more clusters in a domain or two or more domains, when these connections are natural and important.

Instructional materials are clearly shaped by CCSSM cluster headings. The units are divided into instruction focused on domains. Grade 1 standards are clearly identified in the Table of Contents and a CCSSM Focus box found at the beginning of each lesson. Additionally, a CCSSM Correlation Chart identifies which lessons address specific standards. Instructional materials shaped by cluster headings include the following examples:

• Unit 2 Operations and Algebraic Thinking - Learn Facts to 10 (1.OA.D) is shaped by Add and Subtract to 20.
• Unit 3 Operations and Algebraic Thinking - Add and Subtract to 20 is shaped by 1.OA.D.
• Unit 4 Number and Operations in Base Ten - Tens and Unit 5 Number and Operations in Base Ten - Tens and Ones are shaped by 1.NBT.B and 1.NBT.C.
• Unit 7 Lesson 34 Tell Time is shaped by 1.MD.B, tell and write time.

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.

• Unit 2 Lesson 10 Understand the Equal Sign (1.OA.7) is connected to understanding place value (1.NBT.B).
• Unit 3 Lesson 13 Understand Sums Greater than 10 connects adding and subtracting within 20 (1.OA.C) to understanding of place value (1.NBT.B).
• Unit 2 Lessons 6 through 9 connects addition and subtraction within 20 (1.OA.6) to solve word problems (1.OA.1).