Kindergarten - Gateway 1
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Focus & Coherence
Gateway 1 - Does Not Meet Expectations | 14% |
|---|---|
Criterion 1.1: Focus | 2 / 2 |
Criterion 1.2: Coherence | 0 / 4 |
Criterion 1.3: Coherence | 0 / 8 |
After extensive review of the materials for focus and coherence, the review team determined that the program does not devote the majority of the time to the major work of the grade. For example: In the first series of 10 lessons, the first six were saturated with content that is not only not included in the major work but not reflected in this grade level. Handwriting, calendar routines, and manipulative explorations comprised the majority of the first six lessons. Formal work with pictographs was present, yet not required in Kindergarten. AB pattern work was also included but not part of the standards for Kindergarten. Counting to five with one-to-one correspondence was included in lessons 7-9, but represents a small part of the lessons.
- In lesson 59, students pay for items using pennies (identifying and counting coins is part of Grade 2). The enrichment extension, finding numbers that add to 10, is an expectation of the Kindergarten standards and should be instructed to all students.
- In lesson 77, students identify a 1-cup measuring cup and follow a recipe. This also exceeds Kindergarten expectations.
- Identifying spheres in lesson 112 is appropriate to Kindergarten. The enrichment extension called for students to identify shapes as two- or three-dimensional. This is part of the Kindergarten standards and should be instructed to all students.
- Lesson 134 is focused on above grade level content. Sharing a whole by separating it into equal parts and identifying halves and fourths is part of Grade 1 standards.
The materials do not foster coherence within the clusters of the grade and do not support the full intent and connections that naturally occur between the standards. In the instances where more than one cluster was identified in a lesson, they were generally addressed separately. For example:
- In lesson 53, students weigh objects on a pan balance to determine which container is heavier. This concept is taught in isolation.
- In lesson 79, students focus on composing a shape in more than one way, which is consistent with Kindergarten standards. This is taught in isolation, and one of the lesson practice pages attempts to be related to this concept. The practice page also attempts to incorporate K.CC.B.5. It is important to note that the students are not actually asked to determine how to cover the shape in the practice page; it is done for them. The practice page also names trapezoids and parallelograms, not an expectation of this grade. This is a missed opportunity to foster coherence between K.CC and K.G.
- Lesson 110-1 and 110-1 extension activity combined address K.CC.A.3 and K.CC.C.7. Each of the clusters is taught in isolation. Therefore, this lesson is another example of a missed opportunity to foster coherence between clusters.
In conclusion, this series does not capitalize on the natural connections between clusters and domains.
Criterion 1.1: Focus
The instructional materials reviewed for Kindergarten do meet expectations for assessment. Some of the assessments could have items modified or omitted so as to align to Kindergarten expectations, and in other cases, the inclusion of the above grade-level expectations is Mathematically reasonable. Overall, the number of modifications or omissions needed does not significantly impact the underlying structure of the instructional materials. A list of the topics that align to expectations beyond Kindergarten, the standards or clusters to which they actually align, and the assessments in which the topics appear is provided in the evidence section of the report for this indicator.
Indicator 1a
The instructional materials reviewed for Kindergarten do meet expectations for assessment. For this indicator, the review team examined all oral assessments and determined that they do assess some topics that are beyond the expectations for the grade. Some of the assessments could have items modified or omitted so as to align to Kindergarten expectations, and in other cases, the inclusion of the above grade-level expectations is Mathematically reasonable. Overall, the number of modifications or omissions needed does not significantly impact the underlying structure of the instructional materials. Following is a list of the topics that align to expectations beyond Kindergarten, the standards or clusters to which they actually align, and the assessments in which the topics appear.
- Continuing patterns aligns to 3.OA.D.9, “Identify arithmetic patterns (including patterns in the addition table or multiplication table), and explain them using properties of operations.For example, observe that 4 times a number is always even, and explain why 4 times a number can be decomposed into two equal addends”, and 4.OA.C, “Generate and analyze patterns”, and it appears in oral assessment 7 after lesson 70-2. The teaching of this topic is found in eight lessons before the assessment.
- Representing and interpreting data is a topic that aligns to 1.MD.C, “Represent and interpret data”, and it appears in oral assessment 9 after lesson 90-2. The teaching of this topic is found in three lessons before the assessment.
- Identifying pieces of money is a topic that aligns to MD.C.8, “Solve word problems involving dollar bills, quarters, dimes, nickels, and pennies, using $ and ¢ symbols appropriately. Example: If you have 2 dimes and 3 pennies, how many cents do you have?”, and it appears in oral assessment 11 after lesson 110-2. The teaching of this topic is found in 16 lessons before the assessment.
- Measuring and comparing the lengths of more than two objects is a topic that aligns to standards in 1.MD.A, “Measure lengths indirectly and by iterating length units,” and this topic appears in oral assessment 12 after lesson 120-2.
- Counting by fives is a topic that aligns to 2.NBT.A.2, “Count within 1000; skip-count by 5s, 10s, and 100s”, and this topic appears in oral assessment 13 after lesson 130-2.
*Evidence updated 10/27/15
Criterion 1.2: Coherence
Students and teachers using the materials as designed devote the large majority of class time in each grade K-8 to the major work of the grade.
The instructional materials do not spend the majority of time on the major work of Kindergarten. Of the lessons in the table of contents, 59 of 135 are aligned to the major work of the grade, however, the review shed light on misalignments which would decrease the alignment. For example:
- Lessons 41, 49, 51, 59, 67, 68 have been aligned to K.CC.A by the publisher. While counting by 1 and 10 is major work of the grade level, using money diverts the focus to identifying the coins and knowing coin values before the counting can take place. The work with money and skip counting is more appropriately aligned with Grade 2.
Indicator 1b
Instructional material spends the majority of class time on the major cluster of each grade.
The instructional materials reviewed for Kindergarten do not meet the expectation for focus because the materials do not spend the majority of class time on the major cluster of each grade. A review of the table of contents and the author's CCSSM alignment reveals that 59 of the 135 lessons focus on the major work of the grade level. Upon closer scrutiny of the lessons, the review team found that some of the lessons do not accurately reflect the designated CCSSM. For example:
- Lessons 5 and 22 have been aligned to K.CC.A while they actually involve the creation and interpretation of a graph, which is not a Kindergarten expectation. While counting does occur in the graphing lessons, guiding students into arranging items into a graph before counting, limits the future ability of students to learn to arrange items to count on their own. This is one of the major expectations of Kindergarten students.
- There are numerous lessons involving money (including lessons 41, 49, 51, 59, 67 and 68) which have been aligned to K.CC.A by the publisher. While counting by 1 and 10 is major work of the grade level, using money diverts the focus to identifying the coins and knowing coin values before the counting can take place. Additionally, counting by 5 is not major work, yet nickels are also a focus in some of the lessons. Quarters and dollars are included in lessons towards the end of the series, which also exceeds the Kindergarten level.
These misalignments within the activities in the lessons decreases the amount of time that is actually spent on the major clusters of Kindergarten, therefore the majority of class time is not spent on the major clusters of the grade.
Criterion 1.3: Coherence
Coherence: Each grade's instructional materials are coherent and consistent with the Standards.
The instructional materials reviewed for Kindergarten do not meet the expectations for coherence. There is consistent work taught above the grade level that does not meet the progression of the standard and work is taught in isolation with little to no connection made within grade level material.
Indicator 1c
Supporting content enhances focus and coherence simultaneously by engaging students in the major work of the grade.
The instructional materials reviewed for Kindergarten do not meet the expectations for coherence because the supporting content does not support coherence and focus through the major work of the grade. There were attempts to connect K.NBT.A.1 and work with numbers 11-19 to support the K.OA number work, however it was often displayed in the materials through the use of money. However, the use of money is beyond the scope of Kindergarten and therefore the work does not fully support K.NBT and does not support the K.OA domain.
Further examples of misalignment with supporting and major content include:
- Only four lessons (L65, L80, L110-1 and L132) are correlated with K.NBT.A.1 work with numbers 11-19 to gain foundations for place value. Of these lessons, L65 only provides opportunities to count beyond 10 using money, which is not a Kindergarten expectation. Lessons 80 and 110-1 involve counting objects to 20. Only Lesson 132 provides opportunities to write numbers beyond 10.
- Considering K.MD.B.3, many of the lessons involve only the classifying of objects. Only lesson 11, which involves the counting of the objects in each category, actually supports the major work of K.CC.B.5 (counting objects) and K.OA.A.3 (decomposing numbers).
- There were many missed opportunities to add counting to sorting activities, but instead the activity simply required students to compare amounts by visually looking for the "shortest line," (lesson 22). Using a bar graph as the recording tool for the sorting eliminated the need for any counting in these activities.
Indicator 1d
The amount of content designated for one grade level is viable for one school year in order to foster coherence between grades.
The instructional materials reviewed for Kindergarten do not meet expectations for viability of content for the scope of one year. The pacing described in the program overview indicates that four lessons should be completed in a week, with either an assessment or review on the fifth day. Once these 19 review days are added in, the actual number of days needed to complete the curriculum is 154. Although this is a manageable number of days for a school year, such a small percentage of the year's lessons actually delve into the major work of the grade level, so the review team determined that the amount of content was not viable for one school year to foster coherence between Kindergarten and Grade 1. The depth of content needed to prepare students for the next grade level is not present, as cited in 1a, 1b and 1c evidence. Teachers would need to identify additional resources and material in order to cover the major work of the grade.
Indicator 1e
Materials are consistent with the progressions in the Standards i. Materials develop according to the grade-by-grade progressions in the Standards. If there is content from prior or future grades, that content is clearly identified and related to grade-level work ii. Materials give all students extensive work with grade-level problems iii. Materials relate grade level concepts explicitly to prior knowledge from earlier grades.
The instructional materials reviewed for Kindergarten do not meet expectations for coherence and consistency with the progressions. Kindergarten materials cannot be reviewed for relation to previous grade level concepts. Materials were reviewed, however, for development according to the progressions and for the amount of time spent on grade level problems. The review team did not find evidence that would support content development according to the grade-by-grade progression in the standards. The materials address a great deal of off-grade level content, which is not identified as content from another grade. This is found in lessons 51, 65 and 67.
All of these focus on paying for items and trading coins which is the major work of Grade 2, yet they are labeled as aligned to K.CC.A by the publisher. Quite frequently content beyond the scope of the grade is identified by a MP rather than a Content Standard.
Indicator 1f
Materials foster coherence through connections at a single grade, where appropriate and required by the Standards i. Materials include learning objectives that are visibly shaped by CCSSM cluster headings. ii. 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 these connections are natural and important.
The instructional materials do not meet expectations for Kindergarten in fostering coherence through connections at a single grade. In seeking out to evaluate whether the lesson objectives are aligned to the major cluster headings, the review team found that each lesson essentially lacked detailed written objectives. Each lesson included a listing of the CCSSM and a simple title to describe the lesson content, which serves as the objective. In order to verify alignment, an individual must read the lesson to be sure the numbers used and content addressed is within grade level expectations. In most cases, the title wasn't specific enough in order to make a determination of alignment. Examples of vague language can be found in lessons 18, 27, 44, 50 and 60.
Additionally, very few connections were made between targeted clusters. For instance, a number of lessons are identified as aligned to K.MD.B.3, but many of the lessons involve only the classifying of objects.
- Lesson 11 is one instance where connections involve the counting of the objects in each category (K.CC.B.5) and decomposing numbers (K.OA.A.3).
- Lesson 22 misses the opportunity to add counting to sorting activities, instead the activity simply requires students to compare amounts by visually looking for the "shortest line." Using a bar graph as the recording tool for the sorting eliminated the need for any counting in these activities.