2nd Grade - Gateway 1

The instructional materials reviewed for Ready Grade 2 meet the expectations for assessing grade-level content. The program provides Interim Assessments (including a performance task), Mid-Unit Assessments, and Unit Assessments. There are two versions (Form A and Form B) of Mid-Unit and Unit assessments for each of the seven units. There is also a separate Ready Assessments book that provides two assessments.

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

• Ready Assessments book Assessment One Problem 6 asks students to determine the expressions which represent the following: “There are 239 girls and 241 boys at a summer camp. Circle true or false to tell whether the number shows how many children in all. a. 400 + 40 + 40, b. 400 + 30 +40, c. 400 + 7 + 10, d. 400 + 70 + 10.” (2.NBT.7)
• Unit 2 Mid-Unit Assessment Form A (after Lesson 9) Problem 6 states: “Show two different ways to subtract 63-25." (2.NBT.5)
• Interim Assessment Problem 4 states: “Ken’s book has 343 pages. He has read 228 pages. How many pages does Ken have left to read? Draw a model and write an equation to solve the problem.”
• Unit 2 Assessment Form B Problem 5 states: “Ivan wants to add these numbers. 24 + 63 + 41 + 52. Explain how he can find the sum by breaking the numbers into tens and ones. What is the sum?” (2.NBT.B)

Overall, assessment items are aligned to Grade 2 standards.

The instructional materials reviewed for Ready Grade 2 meet the expectations for spending the majority of class time on the major clusters of the grade. This includes all of the clusters in 2.NBT along with 2.OA.A, 2.OA.B, 2.MD.A, and 2.MD.B. 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 2 instruction is divided into four units. Unit 2 addresses 1.NBT, and the majority of Units 1 and 3 address major work from 2.OA.A, 2.OA.B, 2.MD.A, and 2.MD.B. Therefore, 3 out of 4 units, approximately 75 percent, focus on major work of the grade.
• Grade 2 instruction is divided into 28 lessons. Twenty out of 28 lessons, approximately 71 percent, focus on major work of the grade.
• Grade 2 instruction consists of approximately 169 instructional days. Approximately 130 out of 169, approximately 77 percent, of the instructional days focus on major work of the grade.

The instructional materials reviewed for Ready Grade 2 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 1 Lesson 5 adding using arrays, students make arrays (2.OA.4) by skip counting by 5’s (2.NBT.2).
• In Unit 3 Lesson 23 using bar graphs and pictographs (2.MD.10), students solve addition and subtraction problems (2.OA.1).
• In Unit 3 Lesson 24 Tell and Write Time, students skip count by 5’s (2.NBT.2) in order to find the correct time (2.MD.7).
• In Unit 3 Lesson 25 Solve Word Problems Involving Money (2.MD.8), students count money (2.NBT.2) in order to find the correct amount of money.

The instructional materials reviewed for Ready Grade 2 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 136 days of lessons, 20 days of Math in Action, and another 13 days for assessment making 169 days of materials. According to the Teacher Guide, pages A42-A43, each lesson is expected to last between 30-45 minutes.

The instructional materials reviewed for Ready Grade 2 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 2 Lesson 14 where students are asked to solve word problems involving subtracting numbers outside of 100 (2.OA.1).

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 1 Lesson 3 the progression states, “In Grade 1 students model the make 10 strategy using physical models such as connecting cubes and tiles.” 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, Unit 2 Lesson 7 launches with a reference to student knowledge of how to add one-digit numbers. The Teacher Resource Book provides the following guidance for teachers: “Read the problem at the top of the page. Ask students what operation will help them answer the question.” Students have the opportunity to check off skills they already know in the Self Check and then revisit this checklist at the end of the unit to track mastery of learned skills.

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 2 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 and include problems and activities 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 2 standards are clearly identified in the Table of Contents and a CCSS Focus box found at the beginning of each lesson. Additionally, a CCSS Correlation Chart identifies which lessons address specific standards. Instructional materials shaped by cluster headings include the following examples:

• Unit 2 Lesson 7 Add Two-Digit Numbers is shaped by 2.NBT.B, use place value understanding and properties of operations to add and subtract.
• Unit 2 Lesson 15 Add Several Two-Digit Numbers is shaped by 2.NBT.B, use place value understanding and properties of operations to add and subtract.
• Unit 3 Lessons 16-20 are shaped by 2.MD.A, measure and estimate lengths in standard units.
• Unit 3 Lesson 21 Add and Subtract Lengths is shaped by 2.MD.B, relate addition and subtraction to length.

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 1 Lesson 6 Solve Two-Step Word Problems (2.OA.A) is connected to fluently add and subtract within 100 (2.NBT.B).
• Unit 4 Lesson 27 Understand Tiling in Rectangles connects reasoning with shapes and their attributes (2.G.A) to working with equal groups (2.OA.C).
• Unit 3 Lesson 24 addresses 2.MD.C and 2.NBT.A as students are engaged in working with telling time to the nearest five minutes while also working on skip counting with 5’s.
• Unit 1 Lesson 2 Solving One-Step Word Problems connects representing and solving problems involving addition and subtraction (2.OA.1) with fluently adding and subtracting within 20 (2.OA.2).