6th Grade - Gateway 3

The materials reviewed for Grade 6 meet the expectations for being well-designed and taking into account effective lesson structure and pacing. Daily lessons include structures and resources for both whole group and small group literacy instruction.

Daily lesson structures include the components of the Literacy Workshop with 30-40 minutes for whole group reading instruction, 30-40 minutes for small group instruction, and 30-40 minutes for whole group writing instruction. The pacing is defined in the following way:

• Whole group reading instruction builds understanding through close reading, benchmark vocabulary and text analysis.
• Small group time is focused independent reading with small group options.
• Whole group writing instruction is focused on a specific type of writing (narrative, expository, opinion, etc.) and includes independent writing practice.

Below is a detailed example of the lesson structure from Unit 1, Module A:

• Whole Group Reading Instruction:
  • Building Understanding - During this portion of the lesson, teachers “set the purpose” by telling students the following: “We will be reading texts that share the topic of ancient Egypt. As we discuss each text, we will cite evidence from the text to support our inferences and analysis of story elements. An inference is a conclusion drawn by connecting prior knowledge with information in the text. In this lesson, we are also going to analyze how the narrator’s point of view, or perspective, informs readers about story events and characters.”
    • Read - Teachers introduce pages 3-33 of The Egypt Game with the focus on students "... understanding what the text is mainly about ...”
    • Turn and Talk - After these pages, the teacher has the students turn to a partner and discuss this question using examples: “What is the purpose of each of the three introductory chapters?”
  • Close Read - “Engage the class in a discussion about what they just read...Use these questions to guide the discussion...”
    • “Let’s identify clues that help us understand from whose point of view the story is being told. Throughout the first few chapters, pronouns such as he, she, and they tell me that the narrator is not a character in the story. What is the significance of this type of narration?”
    • “Let’s compare the descriptions of the A-Z store on pages 3 and 17. On page 3, I see that the narrator describes a 'dusty shabby' store that has 'dirty show windows.' How does this compare with the description on page 17? Based on this description, what can you infer about April?”
  • Benchmark Vocabulary - Teachers use the “Benchmark Vocabulary Routine for Literary Text” on pages TR28-TR31. “Students find and read sentences from the text with the words deadpan, cultivated, and showboating.”
  • Text Analysis - Students use a graphic organizer to make an inference based on the character’s perspective. The first column is a character from the text; the second column cites evidence of the character’s perspective; the third column is an inference about that character.
• Small Group Time:
  • Focused Independent Reading - Students read their self-selected texts. The teacher announces the two focus points to the class for their self-selected reading. For Unit 1 Module A, lesson 1, the focus is “Engagement and Identity” and “Comprehension.”
    • During focused independent reading, students will use a graphic organizer to collect text evidence that informs them about the development of point of view.
    • Teachers will monitor students’ progress by having them record their reading in a daily reading log and having them review their graphic organizer with the teacher.
  • Additional instruction, practice and extension during “Small Group Time” are offered through a variety of options:
    • Word Analysis - use pages WA2-WA4 in Teacher’s Guide
    • Unlock the Text - use pages 8-13 in Scaffolded Strategies Handbook
    • Conference - teachers conference each day with two or three students to discuss their self-selected texts.
    • Reading Analysis Support - for students who struggle with point of view, there is a “Support Reading Analysis Mine-Lesson.”
    • Reading Analysis Extension - for students who easily understand point of view, there is an “Extend Reading Analysis Mini-Lesson.”
• Whole Group Writing Instruction:
  • Students focus on narrative writing, and first “Establish Point of View.” The teacher sets the purpose by going back to the essential question: “How do writers use story elements to create a mystery?” This leads to a discussion of the narrator’s point of view. The teacher uses models from The Egypt Game to show how third-person omniscient can make it “ . . .easier for the writer to share or withhold key information to create suspense.”
  • Write an Introduction to a Mystery - Students choose a story idea, identify characters and setting and establish a point of view. Teacher models each step of this process.
  • Independent Writing Practice - Students use the prompt on page 2 in their Reader’s and Writer’s Journal and write a one-page introduction to a mystery. After writing, students can volunteer to share their introductions with the class.

The materials reviewed for Grade 6 meet the criteria for the teacher and student reasonably being able to complete the content within a regular school year with the pacing allowing for maximum student understanding. Each unit contains two modules with 18 lessons per module. These lessons are intended to be done one a day, totaling an hour and a half to fit in both reading and writing. The suggested pacing has students reading, in small groups, and then writing during these 90 minutes. Each lesson is broken down by Read, Benchmark Vocabulary, Reading Analysis, and Writing.

• There are four units, each with two modules. Each module has 18 lessons, averaging to 144 lessons. There are also an additional 8-16 lessons to administer Performance Based Writing Assessments. This makes a total of 160 lessons. Most school years are 180 days, making this a reasonable pacing schedule to complete.
• Lessons are set up for 90 or 120 minute blocks that include Reading (Build Understanding, Close Reading, Benchmark Vocabulary, Text Analysis), Small Group Time (Focused Independent Reading, Small Group Options), and Writing (Focused Writing, Independent Writing Practice).
• The online planner allows teachers to customize their calendar adding and deleting lessons as their professional judgment sees fit.

The materials reviewed for Grade 6 meet the requirements for resources including ample review and practice resources, clear directions, and explanations, and correct labeling of reference aids (e.g., visuals, maps, etc.). Students have access to an array of materials including the text collection, anchor texts, Sleuth, leveled text library, online resources, and center options. Other resources available to students include, trade books, text collections, close reading, performance tasks, independent reading activities, as well as digital interactive tools such as Reader’s and Writer’s Journal, Envision It! Animations, and Grammar Jammers. In the online resources, activities and exercises are found, such as Monster Word Mania and Pack Up the Skills interactive games. Some of these might be a little juvenile for a 6th grader, but could be helpful for an ELL student. There are close reading and independent reading modeling videos. Each of these resources include ample opportunity to review and practice, clear directions, and correct labeling.

Some examples of the resources that provide review and practice opportunities are:

• Daily Focused Independent Reading routines and structures allow students to extend and apply what they are learning in daily whole group instruction to a text of their own choosing at their ability and interest level.
• Daily Independent Writing Practice gives students opportunity to apply the writing skills and conventions they have discussed and learned in whole class instruction to a daily writing prompt that prepares them for Performance Based Writing Assessment at the end of each module.
• Digital Opportunities for Writing and Reading are provided daily during Small Group Instruction.
• Daily mini-lessons in Language Conventions focus on one or more language standards. Students apply these conventions to their own writing, then practice these newly acquired skills for teacher to monitor progress in their Reader’s and Writer’s Journal.
• Sleuth, a collection of short, high-interest selections, serves to support and extend daily close reading lessons for struggling and accelerated learners. Three to four times in each unit, or sixteen times over the course of the school year, the scaffolded instruction during Small Group lessons use Sleuth to reteach, practice, and apply close reading skills and strategies (Implementation Guide, page 17).
• Scaffolded Strategies Handbook Part One: Unlock the Text contains lessons for every anchor and supporting text, the section Express and Extend allows struggling and accelerated learners opportunities to react to the text through discussion and writing.
• During Small Group Instruction, students use independent center activities to practice and apply standards in Reading, Writing, Word Work, and Research. Digital Components are available and suggested for each of these four sections.
• There is a scaffolded strategies handbook, along with teacher resources, that has a multitude of graphic organizers, rubrics, and sentence frames that are available for students to use.
• Common Core Correlations section in Implementation Guide shows where each standard is addressed in Units’ Teacher’s Guides across the units and across the year.

Some examples of clear explanation and directions include:

• In Unit 1 Module A the Scaffolded Strategies Notebook on page 368, students are provided with sentence frames as a model to write and speak about key ideas and details from The Egypt Game.
• In Unit 4, Module B, lesson 10, the teacher is prompted to give clear direction and explanation. The teacher says, “In this lesson, we are going to read a text about the invention and history of light bulbs and electricity. The information presented in the text can be technical. We will focus on how readers can use titles, subheads, sidebars and graphics to better understand this technical information.”
• In Unit 3 Module A, lesson 5, the Reader’s and Writer’s Journal, students are instructed to write a sentence using a vocabulary term, and then use text evidence to write about how a new law affected the author and her family.

The materials reviewed for Grade 6 meet expectations for including publisher-produced alignment documentation of the standards addressed by specific questions, tasks, and assessment items. In the Implementation Guide, there is a Scope and Sequence of all four units, that show where each of the standards is hit within the curriculum. Lessons clearly denote standards alignment. Standard documentation is found in the lesson objectives.

Examples of materials of publisher-produced alignment documentation of the standards addressed include, but are not limited to:

• The Implementation Guide’s Scope and Sequence section lists all English Language Arts standards for Grade 6, and which unit and module addresses them.
• The Implementation Guide’s Unit Overviews Standards Maps section describes the Performance Based Writing Assessment for each module. It lists Essential Questions, Enduring Understanding, and Goals for each module, along with corresponding standards, and lists all standards addressed in each module.
• The Implementation Guide’s Common Core Correlations section lists Common Core Standards along with page numbers in each Unit’s Teacher’s Guide where these standards are addressed in lesson, task, assignment, or assessment.
• Standards and Lesson Objectives are clearly stated on left hand side of Teacher's Guide at the beginning of each lesson.
  • For example, in Unit 4, Module B, lesson 10, on page 304 of the Teacher’s Guide, the objectives are:
    • Acquire and use accurately grade-appropriate general academic and domain-specific words and phrases; gather vocabulary knowledge when considering a word or phrase important to to comprehension or expression. L.6.6.
    • Analyze how a particular sentence, paragraph, chapter, or section fits into the overall structure of a text and contributes to the development of the ideas. RI.6.5.

The materials reviewed for Grade 6 meet the expectations for providing a teacher’s guide with ample and useful annotations and suggestions on how to present the content in the student edition and in the ancillary materials. Where applicable, materials include teacher guidance for the use of embedded technology to support and enhance student learning.

Materials include a Teacher’s Guide that includes a clear outline of each unit as well as notes and suggestions of how to present content. The Teacher’s Guide also includes the objectives of the lesson, explanations of where to find descriptions of routine, and suggested ways to present content as well as possible questions to ask that are noted in blue. Each question asked is followed by a sample student answer. The teacher’s edition also includes scaffolded instruction boxes to address learners needs with suggestions and ideas on how to differentiate instruction for those students in need.

Other examples of annotations and suggestions on how to present the content in the student edition and in the ancillary materials include but are not limited to:

• Implementation Guide, page 5, provides suggested steps for lesson planning:
  • Read the Performance Based Writing Assessment expectations for module.
  • Read the anchor and supporting texts for module.
  • Review text complexity rubric for all texts in module. These rubrics, found in Teacher Resource Section in back of each Teacher's Guide for four units, two modules in each, identify content that may be challenging, allowing for modifications.
  • Review Scaffolded Strategies Handbook lessons for module, and choose those that would enhance small group instruction.

• Instructional routines, located in Teacher’s Resource Section at the back of each unit’s Teacher's Guide, provide routines for discussion, read aloud, shared and independent reading, and vocabulary instruction. Icons placed throughout lesson presentations direct the teacher to the appropriate routine. Blackline masters of graphic organizers are also provided here, as well as in depth word analysis lessons.
• Unit Overview Standards Maps, located in Implementation Guide, provide explanations of each module’s Performance Based Writing Assessment Goals, as well as essential questions and enduring understanding goals.
• Scaffolded Strategies Handbook contains specific front-loading activities and support for each anchor and supporting text, and the Performance Based Writing Assessment. Small group instruction directions in Teacher Guides point to specific pages of Scaffolded Strategies Handbook. These lessons are geared toward struggling and advanced learners, while the last section in the Scaffolded Strategies Handbook specifically offers instructional support for English Language Learners.
• There are four Teacher's Guides, one for each unit and module. The Teacher's Guides have a two-page layout for each module, providing the teacher with a quick overview of each lesson’s Reading Instructional Focus, Independent Reading Process and Strategy, Writing Instructional and Independent Focus. A separate two-page planning layout highlights goals of specific lessons, including standards and vocabulary to be taught, and page numbers of reading.
• Each module provides center options with these instructions, “During small group time, students can use independent center activities to practice and apply standards.” Options for activities focus on both concepts and learning objectives for the unit, with specific reading, writing, word work and research activities. Corresponding digital components for these center options include online leveled texts, vocabulary and word analysis games, online comprehension activities, and a website, Tikatok.com, that allows students to write and publish books.

The materials reviewed for Grade 6 meet the expectations of materials containing a teacher edition that contains full, adult-level explanations and examples of the more advanced literary concepts so that teachers can improve their own knowledge of the subject as necessary. The materials also include an Implementation Guide to provide specific explanations, rational, and examples of key concepts that are needed to improve knowledge of the subject. Common Core Correlations, located in the Implementation Guide, list all of Grade 6 ELA standards by strand, then the page numbers in each unit’s Teacher’s Guide where these standards are addressed.

The Teacher Editions include:

• Instructional Routines, along with their rationales, are located in the Teacher Resource Section in the back of each of four Teacher’s Guides.

• Generative Vocabulary Instruction is explained in the Implementation Guide on page 8 as “helping students learn about words.” A white paper on generative vocabulary instruction is available online at pearsonrealize.com. It’s further described in each unit of the Teacher’s Guide at the beginning of each module. Teachers learn about benchmark vocabulary (words that are important for understanding concepts within a text) and by-the-way words (sophisticated or unusual Tier II and Tier III words).

• Text Complexity Rubrics are available for each Anchor and Supporting Text. Rubrics explain quantitative, qualitative, and reader and task considerations, and provide the teacher with information on potential challenges students may have in accessing the text. These rubrics are located in the Teacher’s Resource Section in the back of each unit’s Teacher’s Guide.

• Tips and Tools sidebars throughout the Teacher’s Guides, Scaffolded Strategies Handbook, and Teacher Resource sections provide quick definitions of literary and language terms being taught in each lesson. For example, “Tips and Tools” on page TR25 of the “Routines” portion of the Teacher Resources offers definitions for affix, inflectional ending, and root words for the teacher.

• Independent Reading Continuum, located in Teacher’s Resource Section of each unit’s Teacher’s Guide, “shows a progression of the essential elements of independent reading in the elementary grades, describing strategies and processes that students practice when engaged in purposeful, self-selected reading” (Implementation Guide, page 37).

The materials reviewed for Grade 6 meet the expectations for materials containing a teacher’s edition that explains the role of the specific ELA/literacy standards in the context of the overall curriculum. Unit and Module overviews explain the progression of the content and how this specific course connects to previous and upcoming coursework. Scope and sequence is included in the Implementation Guide that includes all Common Core Standards and which Unit and Module they are addressed.

The Teacher’s Editions also include:

• Implementation Guide contains a section entitled “How do I use ReadyGen?” (6). This section explains that “all instruction ultimately leads to a successful Performance Based Writing Assessment. Using the concept of universal design and backwards planning, all instruction is geared toward the successful completion of the Performance Based Writing Assessment.”

• Instructional Routines in Discussion, Reading, Vocabulary, and Writing form the framework of instruction. These routines are “developmentally appropriate to each grade and build upon the previous grade in a spiral fashion” (Implementation Guide, page 7).

• Generative Vocabulary Instruction is another foundation of ReadyGen. “The overarching goal of the vocabulary strand is to foster understanding of a single text, and carry that word knowledge across text types within the unit and beyond” (Implementation Guide, page 8).

The materials reviewed for Grade 6 meet the expectations for materials containing explanations of the instructional approaches of the program and identifying research-based strategies. Explanations of the instructional approaches of the program and identifying research-based strategies include but are not limited to:

• The Implementation Guide provides rationale and explanations of instructional approaches and research based strategies. From page 6, “ReadyGen lessons are designed with P. David Pearson’s gradual release of responsibility model with the goal of building independent readers and writers.”

• Instructional Routines for Discussion, Reading, Vocabulary, and Writing are found in the Teacher’s Resource Section of each unit’s Teacher’s Guide. These Instructional Routines “provide the framework around which teachers can flexibly respond to students’ needs and through which students build expertise and confidence” (Implementation Guide, page 7).

• Generative Vocabulary Instruction is another routine that is research based. Goals for this instruction are outlined in the Implementation Guide on pages 8 and 9, but a white paper is available for download on Pearson.com/ReadyGen.

• Text Complexity Rubrics, a three-part model that gauges the difficulty of a particular text, are available for all Anchor and Supporting Texts in the Teacher’s Resource Section of each unit’s Teacher’s Guide.

• “What is the Research behind ReadyGen” section in the Implementation Guide provides an overview of instructional approach, with corresponding quotes from experts in the field.

The materials reviewed for Grade 6 meet expectations for regularly and systematically offering a multitude of assessment opportunities that genuinely measure student progress.

This curriculum offers a variety of assessments including baseline assessments, formative assessments, performance based assessments, end-of-unit assessments, and an assessment book. Specifically, the assessment throughout the materials include, but are not limited to:

• Within the Teacher’s Guide there is a multitude of assessment options for assessing English Language Learners, including fluency tests and running records, test administration information, answer keys, and rubrics for the Baseline and End-of-Unit Assessments.
• At the beginning of the year, educators have the option of administering a baseline assessment to know where the students are and where the best place to start would be. It helps identify students who are on-level, below-level, and students who may need more of a challenge.
• Each module contains formative assessments that include both reading and writing. Within these components, students are being tested on key language, structure, and ideas, along with fluency checks, and writing responses that require students to use textual evidence in their answers. Additionally, there is a section for “if...then” to help monitor students’ progress in the Scaffolded Strategies Handbook.
• Each module in the ReadyGen curriculum has a performance based assessment that has students use the skills they acquired throughout the lessons in the module. These assessments help guide teachers in measuring students’ mastery of the standards. Rubrics are included to score their work along with a Reflect and Respond section in which students can see what they can do better to improve their writing.
• At the culmination of each unit, there is an end-of-unit assessment that contains reading passages, selected response questions, and writing prompts. Students answer questions that are read to them or they read themselves. The questions include both vocabulary and comprehension and are related to both literary and informational texts and continue to get more complex over the course of the school year. The writing prompts ask students to write in varying lengths in all writing types.

The materials reviewed for Grade 6 meet the expectations for assessments providing sufficient guidance to teachers for interpreting student performance and suggestions for follow-up. Materials provide teachers with guidance for administering assessments and interpreting results through rubrics and scoring guidance documents. Other guidance includes, but is not limited to:

• The performance based assessments at the end of each module allow students to apply the skills they gained throughout the module. This process of assessment allows educators to measure students’ mastery of the standards. Teachers have access to a four-point writing rubric to score their assessment. Additionally, there is a reflect and respond section in which writers can improve on specific areas they need help. For example, in Unit 1, Module B students are asked to write an informative/explanatory task, specifically an encyclopedia article. The rubric is based on a 4-point scale covering the areas of Focus, Organization, Development, Language and Vocabulary, and Conventions. For students who receive a 0, 1, or, 2 on the scoring rubric, there is a section on page 399 that can help students who are struggling in certain areas work on these skills. For example, “If...students struggle to choose a topic that is appropriate in scope for an encyclopedia article, then...give examples of topics with an appropriate scope. You may also consider creating a list of topics for students to choose from.”
• On the end-of-unit assessments, teachers are given instructions on administering and scoring. Teachers are explicitly guided in the Teacher’s Guide on how to administer the variety of assessments including running records, fluency tests, and test administration for the other forms of assessments.
• Additionally, educators are given instructions on what to do with the results they obtain after administering the assessments to the students. Teachers can use their findings to gauge what steps should be taken next to help support their students at their varying levels.

The materials reviewed for Grade 6 meet the expectations for including routines and guidance that point out opportunities to monitor student progress. There is an array of opportunities for teachers to watch their students’ growth over the course of the school year.

Some examples of these monitoring strategies include, but are not limited to:

• Fluency opportunities for reading accountability that explain how students read fluently and what it should sound and look like. Within the quick check section, teachers can monitor the progress of their students by following the “if...then…” protocol. For example, on page 17 of Unit 2, Module A, students are working on appropriate phrasing within their fluency by reading the paragraph “Tides” on page 8 of Ocean Storm Alert!. “If...students forget to pause...then ask them to copy the passage and mark pauses with slash marks.”
• Within the Writing Keystone Checklist, students are asked to do various tasks and then are scored on whether they achieved that task on the rubric. For example, on page 70 of Unit 2, Module A, students are being asked to Make and Support Claims. Their checklist of items includes: express a clear claim, provide evidence to support the claim, develop the argument with logical facts, details, examples, and quotations from the text. Additionally, there is a section in the Scaffolded Strategies handbook on page 224 that can further assist students and teachers with support if needed in the above areas.
• At the end of the teacher’s manuals, there is a Check Progress section “to assess students’ word-analysis skills and their word reading in context. ” Teachers are given a test along with an answer key and have additional support in the monitor progress section. For example, on WA26 of Unit 3, “if...students have difficulty with expressions, idioms, and sayings, then...have students review the lessons and also look up common expressions, idioms, and sayings in print or online resources. Have them make up sentences using these figures of speech.”

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 6 meet the expectations for providing strategies to meet the needs of a range of learners so the content is accessible to all learners and support them in meeting or exceeding grade-level standard.

There are teaching ideas in the Scaffolded Strategies Handbook that address English Language Learners, struggling readers and even accelerated learners. The needs of students with disabilities are also addressed.

Included in the handbook are models for scaffolded instruction, strategies, routines that can be used with all students in small or whole group or individual instruction time. The Scaffolding Strategies Handbook is organized into four parts:

• Within Part 1, titled Unlock the Text, every anchor and supporting text is supported with scaffolds and strategies. The lessons are divided into Prepare to Read, Interact with Text, and Express and Extend.
• Part 2 is titled Unlock the Writing. These lessons work to scaffold the module-level Performance Based Assessments and it also provides additional lessons to teach the writing types required by the standards.
• In Part 3 of the Scaffolded Strategies Handbook routines, graphic organizers, and activities are provided to support students.
• Part 4 is titled Unlock Language Learning and focuses on supporting English Language Learners construct the meaning and explore vocabulary of a text. This section provides support to build background, talk about sentences, speak and write about the text, expand understanding of vocabulary, and write about the anchor and supporting text.

Small group instruction is provided based on student need with options such as:

• Unlock the Text: supports students in accessing ideas, key language, and key structures
• Word Analysis: supports students with their foundational skills.
• Conferencing: helps students to grow their independent reading accountability as they discuss their self-selected texts with the teacher.
• Support Instruction: targets students who need additional scaffolding for the instructional focus of each lesson.
• Extensions: intended for students who understand the lesson focus and would benefit from opportunities to extend the lesson and enhance learning.
• Sleuth: used three to four times each unit for small group lessons to reteach, practice, and refine close-reading skills and strategies.

There are scaffolded instruction notes in almost every lesson in the Teacher's Guides.

• In Unit 2, Module A, lesson 1, page 13 of the Teacher’s Guide the Scaffolded Instruction note states, “English Language Learners -- Multiple Meaning Words -- Explain to students that the word alert is an adjective meaning ‘bright’ or ‘attentive.’ Explain that alert is also used as a noun meaning ‘warning.’ Tell students that an alert is a warning given when there is immediate danger. Point out how the exclamation mark in the title reinforces the immediacy of the warning.”
• In Unit 2, Module A, lesson 10, page 109 of the Teacher’s Guide the Scaffolded Instruction note states, “Strategic Support -- Incorporating Point of View -- Students may have difficulty distinguishing between statements of fact and statements incorporating point of view. Write: People choose to build homes by the shore. Then write: I think it is a bad idea to build a home by the shore. Model rewriting to eliminate bias: Recent disasters show that it is risky to build homes very close to an ocean’s shore.”

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 6 meets the expectations for providing all students, including those who read, write, speak, or listen below grade level or in a language other than English, with extensive opportunities to work with grade level text and meet or exceed grade-level standards. The Teacher’s Guide provides daily scaffolding for immediate feedback during lessons, and the Scaffolded Strategies Handbook provides more extensive follow up to support English Language Learners.

The Teacher’s Guide provides on-the-spot scaffolds in each lesson. These address common stumbling blocks encountered by English Language Learners and struggling readers and writers. They are highlighted at the bottom of each lesson in blue.

• In Unit 1, Module B, lesson 4, page 251 the note states, “Modal Auxiliary Verbs: Copy and display the verb chart. Say a sentence such as: The class_______ the museum. Have student choose verbs from the chart to complete the sentence. Discuss the way each verb affects the meaning. Then have students work in small groups. One says a sentence as above, and another chooses a modal auxiliary verb to complete it. Continue until all group members have had a turn.”
• In Unit 4, Module A, lesson 17, page 173, the note states, “Details and Elaboration: Help students understand that when an author elaborates on a topic, he or she provides additional details. Explain that paraphrasing an author’s elaboration, or restating the new details in their own words, may help to increase their understanding of the additional information presented.”

The Scaffolded Strategies Handbook has a number of resources for teachers to assist English Language Learners, struggling readers and writers as well as students with disabilities. These are intended to be used during small group time. The handbook has four sections of resources that include:

• Unlock the Text: This section includes text complexity rubrics that offer insight into the quantitative, qualitative and reader and task measures of text. The qualitative measures provide strategies for levels of meaning, structure, language conventionality and clarity, and knowledge demands. Cognate charts are provided for each anchor text and supporting text in this section of the handbook as well.
• Unlock Writing: This section provides scaffolded lessons for the Performance-Based Assessments and grade level support and guidelines for teaching the standards based writing types.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 6 meet the expectations for including extensions and /or more advanced opportunities for students who read, write, speak, or listen above grade level.

Each lesson offers support for accelerated learners in Small Group Options. The small group options provided in the Teacher’s Guide offers teachers opportunities to direct their instruction to the needs of their students. Teachers are encouraged to gather formative assessment information from whole group instruction to help determine student needs during small groups. Opportunities within small groups that include:

• Independent Reading Conferences: Opportunities for students to discuss self-selected texts can be found in the Teacher Resource Book. Independent reading rubrics are also provided for students to self-assess reading preferences and behaviors.
• Close Reading Extension or Language Analysis Extension are provided for students who are adept or excel at the skill or lesson.
• Mini-lessons can also be found in the Sleuth materials that offer extensions for students who excel at close reading or language analysis.
• In Unit 3, Module A, lesson 3 the Close Reading Extension on page 37 asks students to complete an Extend Mini-Lesson for Sleuth activity. Students discuss questions, gather evidence, ask questions, make their case, and prove their thinking.

The Scaffolded Strategies Handbook included opportunities outside of the teacher guide for extensions for students who are above grade level. These sections are titled Extend, Accelerated, and Going Deeper. Other opportunities the handbook provides include but are not limited to:

• There are four parts in the Scaffolded Strategies Handbook - Unlock the Text, Unlock the Writing, Routines and Activities, and Unlock Language Learning. Within each part, there are extensions activities and strategies.
• In Unit 1, Module A, on page 19 of the Scaffolded Strategies Handbook, students Unlock the Text to Express and Extend after reading You Wouldn’t Want to be Cleopatra! The Extend section states, “Write the phrases no picnic, pocket the money, hatches a plot, tough act to follow, and watch your back. Have students explain the meaning of each phrase and provide an example of how they might use it in conversation.”
• In Part 2, Unlock the Writing on page 235 students are provided with a practice and a deeper practice when working with informative/explanatory texts. The Deeper Practice note states, “Have students work individually using their group’s graphic organizer, to write an introduction to the topic. Ask them to start with the topic that does not give an opinion about the plant. Have students compare their work.”
• On page TR11 in the Unit 1 Shared Reading Routine, teachers are provided with a Going Deeper activity once students are familiar with the routine. The directions state, “Once students are familiar with the routine: have them add sticky notes to text sections that cause confusion and are “Aha!” moments. These sections can then be discussed after the reading; have them flag sections of relevant text when they are given a reading focus ahead of time.”
• On page TR23 in the Unit 2 Text Club Routine directions, teachers are provided with a Going Deeper activity for when students become comfortable with routine to help them explore Text Clubs more deeply. The directions state, “Have students from each group ‘jigsaw’ with students from other groups to share an element of the text they read. This engages all students in all texts being read in the class.”

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 6 meet the expectations for providing opportunities for teachers to use a variety of grouping strategies. Students participate in partner and small group Think/Pair/Share, whole class discussion, small group discussion, read alouds, shared reading, independent reading, text clubs, and benchmark vocabulary discussions for both informational and literary texts.

The Teacher’s Guide provides small group options for teachers to provide direct instruction to meet the needs of their students. Teachers are encouraged to use information gained from whole group instruction to help determine where students need additional supports or extensions during small groups. Examples of this include:

• In Unit 1, Module A, lesson 11, the Teacher’s Guide states, “Have students work independently or in small groups to continue to identify and analyze text feature in both texts. Use the Small Group Discussion Routine on pp. TR6-TR7 to have students make comparisons between the two texts and to discuss why they think the author of You Wouldn’t Want to Be Cleopatra! included more text features. Check understanding by asking students to share or by circulating among students or groups.”
• In Unit 3, Module B, lesson 6, the Teacher’s Guide has students Turn and Talk, “After reading, have students turn to a partner and discuss this question using examples from the text: What actions do Min, Tree-ear, Ajima, and Crane-man take to have Min reconsidered for a royal commission? Use the Think-Pair-Share Routine on pages TR2-TR3.”

Routines and protocols for grouping strategies are provided in the Teacher Resources section of the Teacher’s Guide.