2nd Grade - Gateway 3

The materials reviewed for Grade 2 include opportunities for teachers to effectively plan and utilize materials with integrity and to further develop their own understanding of the content. Each module includes an accompanying Family Letter that is found in each module’s companion website. The letter provides the module title and information about the final module challenge, asks the family for feedback on the student experiences relevant to the module, and provides sample prompts family members can use to foster conversations at home about the module to provide student sensemaking. While the digital materials for Kindergarten also include a Family Letter translated into Spanish, there is a missed opportunity to include a translated letter in Grade 2. 

Example of a Family Letter used to communicate to stakeholders:

• In Grade 2, Earth and Space Science, How Can We Map Land And Water On Earth?, parents are asked: “Is your child familiar with reading or using a map? Has your child ever visited a place with different kinds of land or water than we have in our region (e.g., mountains, islands, oceans, rivers)?” They are encouraged to ask some questions at home to help students make sense of what they are doing at school: “Do you remember a time when we went somewhere new together and had to figure out where we wanted to go (a park, a mall, a new town)? What did we do to figure out what was around us? What was important for us to know? Are you creating a model of Ada’s park? Tell me about how you are modeling the park. Is there a part of the park that you would most like to visit? What makes you say that? “

The materials reviewed for Grade 2 are feasible and flexible for one school year but do not provide guidance for adjusting instruction and/or pacing based on local contexts.

There are four modules in the Grade 2 materials and each module consists of 10 lessons. Most lessons are estimated to take 30 minutes, but some lessons span two days. The materials list how many class periods comprise each lesson in the lesson planner, but do not include a comprehensive pacing guide that provides the total number of class periods and expected duration of each module at a glance. However, based on the lesson planner, Grade 2’s 56 anticipated class periods are feasible for a single year.

The materials do not contain any other pacing guidance or suggestions on how to modify instruction and/or pacing when there is not sufficient time to implement the full program.

The materials reviewed for Grade 2 do not include assessments that offer accommodations that allow students to demonstrate their knowledge and skills without changing the content of the assessment. However, the program uses the universal design approach where assessments are offered in multiple modalities (e.g. drawings with verbal responses), use a large font, and provide picture-based or simple text. In addition, Spanish materials are available both in print and digitally. The materials miss the opportunity to provide specific examples for access or accommodation for the assessments for disabled students or multilingual learners beyond Spanish speakers.

The materials reviewed for Grade 2 include varied approaches to learning tasks over time and variety in how students are expected to demonstrate their learning with opportunities for students to monitor their learning. 

The materials provide multiple multi-modal approaches to presenting and engaging with the material throughout the grade. Students engage with content by reading, listening to reading, watching videos, and making first-hand observations. Students participate and respond through writing, discussion, oral presentation, drawing, and building models. The materials also utilize a variety of participation structures and students engage in whole-group instruction and discussions, small-group work, and partner work. For instance:

• In Grade 2, Physical Science, How Can We Change Solids And Liquids?, Lesson 6: Making a Mold, students listen to a story, “Fatima’s Silver Necklace,” and discuss the text. They talk to their shoulder partner about whether the way of making a necklace gives them any ideas about how to change the shape of crayons and then share their ideas. Students engage in a reading structure to reread the text and summarize their learning aloud with a partner using text-based evidence. Students work in pairs to cut out pictures to sequence the steps in the story. Students use what they have learned to work together to draw a solution idea for changing the shape of the crayons. 

• In Grade 2, Earth and Space Science, How Can We Map Land And Water On Earth?, Lesson 7: What Are the Patterns of Land and Water on Earth?, students read the investigative question aloud and turn to partners and discuss how they could use the patterns the groups shared to figure out what kinds of land and water may be in the parts of Ada’s park that they cannot see. Students record their ideas and evidence for revising their park model. 

The materials also provide students with multiple opportunities to share, revise, and reflect on their thinking. Instruction typically begins with a phenomenon or problem, and students share or record their initial thinking on the phenomenon. They often return to the phenomenon or problem multiple times and adjust their thinking based on new activities or instruction. For instance:

• In Grade 2, Life Science, How Can We Find The Best Place For A Plant To Grow?, Lesson 8: Home on the Range, students look back at Lesson 7 to share what they know from modeling wind and fur to add to the chart, “How it Got There” in the What We Know column. Students suggest ideas for what else they need to know that will help them figure out how the acorn got to the planter on the balcony. Students look at a map and share what they found out from the map on the chart. They use this information to revise and present their initial explanations.

The materials reviewed for Grade 2 include opportunities for teachers to use a variety of grouping strategies. 

Throughout the modules, lessons include teacher directions to have students work independently, in pairs, in small groups, or to conduct lessons as a whole-class. Students frequently work with a  partner for reading, turn-and-talks, brainstorming, conducting investigations, or designing solutions to problems.  Examples include:

• In Grade 2, Earth and Space Science, How Can We Map Land And Water On Earth?, Lesson 1: What Is a Map?, student responses are summarized by the teacher to build a class definition of the scenario presented. 

• In Grade 2, Engineering Design, How Can We Stop Land From Washing Away?, Lesson 7: Holding Back the Land, students are divided into four large groups to read from a text about a possible solution to a problem. In their large group, students discuss the possible solution and compare the reading to ideas that the class had previously brainstormed. Finally, they discuss if the solution the group read about would solve the class’ problem.  

Rationale for increased pair collaboration in Grade 2 is provided in the front matter of each teacher guide in the Curriculum Overview: Group Work section, citing that paired collaboration increases engagement as well as vocabulary use and development. Teacher guides provide clear instructions for what type of grouping to use for each activity within the activity’s instructions. However, there is a missed opportunity to provide guidance for teachers about needs-based pairing or grouping, or to offer adaptations for different student needs. Examples include:

• In Grade 2, the Curriculum Overview, Group Work, provides rationale for teachers about the importance of student group work. The rationale explains that scientists regularly work with others so engaging in structured collaboration is important for students. It explains that in lower elementary, students are often paired to provide increased opportunities for growth in communication skills and vocabulary use. 

Teacher guidance is given to indicate when and how students should be grouped. This guidance comes throughout the lesson as applicable. Examples include:

• In Grade 2, Life Science, How Can We Find The Best Place For A Plant to Grow?, Lesson 7: Hitching a ride, teacher guidance states, “Bring the class back together. Split groups of four students into pairs.”

The materials reviewed for Grade 2 include a balance of images or information about people, representing various demographic and physical characteristics. The texts in the accompanying Smithsonian Science Stories include depictions from a range of ethnicities, genders, and demographics and content and stories connected to a range of cultures. This includes a range of people being positively depicted as scientists and engineers. There are also representations of a variety of family structures, including images of single-parent, two-parent, multi-generational, and multi-ethnic families. Examples include:

• In Grade 2, Physical Science, How Can We Change Solids and Liquids?, the “Not So Fast, Newton” reading from the book Art in Science includes images of two female-presenting students successfully completing a class activity to use the same blocks to make different objects. The same reading includes an image of a child and an adult with different physical characteristics in an at-home setting.

In Grade 2, Physical Science, How Can We Change Solids And Liquids?, the “Fatima’s Silver Necklace” reading from the book Art in Science is a story about Fatima from the Tuareg tribe in the Sahara Desert. In the story, Ibrahim is an artist who is an honored person in his tribe. He is making a necklace for Fatima that represents her home city. This story is incorporated into Lesson 6: Making A Mold.

The materials provide limited guidance to encourage teachers to draw upon student home language to facilitate learning. With at least one instance found in each lesson across the units, various strategies are suggested including: discussions in both home language and English, pairing bilingual students with English language learners, and grouping students with a common home language. Examples include: 

• In Grade 2, Engineering Design, How Can We Stop Land From Washing Away?, Lesson 6: Choosing a Problem, the EL Strategy located in the callout box states, “Suggest students discuss content in both their native language and in English. This can help them become more familiar with the potential similarities between English and their native language.” 

Additionally, for Spanish speakers, the digital materials include text and a text-to-speech reader in English and Spanish, Spanish versions of student-facing materials, and family letters for each unit. Vocabulary cards with images are also included to support English language learners. Translations are not available in other languages.

The materials reviewed for Grade 2 include limited guidance to encourage teachers to draw upon student cultural and social backgrounds to facilitate learning. The materials primarily support teachers to draw upon students’ backgrounds and funds of knowledge through the Family Letters and when introducing phenomena and problems. The EL Strategy callout boxes also occasionally contain questions related to students’ cultural backgrounds. The materials do not provide overall guidance on drawing upon student cultural and social backgrounds.

Each module includes a Family Letter that is sent home at the beginning of the unit. The Family Letter gathers background experiences with the science content and phenomenon and/or problem and provides students the opportunity to share their personal and cultural experiences. For example:

• In Grade 2, Life Science, How Can We Find The Best Place For A Plant to Grow?, the Family Letter asks parents: “Is your child familiar with growing plants, gardening, or farming? If possible, please describe your child’s experiences. Is your child familiar with insects and how plants are pollinated? If possible, please describe your child’s experiences. Is your child familiar with natural habitats that are different from the one they live in? If possible, please describe your child’s experiences.”

The materials also typically ask for students’ experience when introducing phenomena and problems. Sometimes the teacher prompts students for their experience and at other times this is embedded in the Ada Asks video that introduces the phenomenon and/or problem. For example:

• In Grade 2, Physical Science, How Can We Change Solids And Liquids?, Lesson 1: Piece By Piece, students are asked to share experiences with building sculptures. They are prompted with the information that sometimes sculptures could be made from things like modeling dough or plastic building blocks. 

The EL Strategy callout boxes also occasionally include guidance for teachers to draw upon students’ cultural backgrounds. While the materials target these prompts to multilingual learners, the guidance is applicable to students of all backgrounds. For example:

• In Grade 2, Physical Science, How Can We Change Solids And Liquids?, Lesson 3: What Happens to Wax?, in the EL strategy box, teachers are directed to invite students to share other times or places they use candles in their communities to connect students’ cultures to content. 

There are also some instances where student activities and learning connect to traditions from non-dominant cultures. For example:

• In Grade 2, Physical Science, How Can We Change Solids And Liquids?, Lesson 6: Making a Mold, students learn about a method of wax casting from a North African Tuareg tribe. The object is made out of wax, and the wax is coated in clay, which hardens. The clay is heated to melt the wax inside. The melted wax is poured out and molten metal is poured into the mold. Students use this method to create a mold for their crayons.

The materials reviewed for Grade 2 include supports for different reading levels to ensure accessibility for students. Reading is primarily included through Smithsonian Science Stories. Lexile levels are provided for each reading in the Table of Contents. The Curriculum Overview in the front matter of each unit describes that each reader is, “carefully calibrated to grade-level appropriate Lexile measurements according to Common Core text complexity guidelines.” The digital versions of the texts have a text-to-speech function. This function is automated, however, and headings and captions are read out of order and the reading sometimes lacks fluency.

The digital editions of the Smithsonian Science Stories are available both on-grade and below-grade level to ensure accessibility for all students. Options for above-grade readers are not offered in Grade 2. 

As an additional support, vocabulary card sets are available for all units. They are explained in the Teacher’s Guide in the Curriculum Overview to be used in supporting vocabulary acquisition for multilingual learners and struggling readers. These cards can also be used to create a word wall in the classroom for student access.

The materials also embed strategies to support comprehension into the lessons themselves. Reading is supported throughout each module by scaffolding expectations for students using read-alouds, comprehension prompts, jigsaw activities, annotation, discussion, and other strategies. Examples include:

• In Grade 2, Physical Science, How Can We Change Liquids And Solids?, Lesson 8: Creating Our Crayons, students read “Creating Colors” from the Smithsonian Science Stories. A Teacher Tip is provided that if students are reading from a photocopy, they can use a highlighter or pen to mark evidence of how people once made different colors. This information is then transferred to Notebook Sheet A. 

• In Grade 2, Life Science, How Can We Find the Best Place for a Plant to Grow?, Lesson 4: Tomato Trouble, students work in pairs to collect evidence from a text to solve a problem. Each student receives a copy of the text. Before reading, students look through the titles, illustrations, and captions pointing out the different text features included. Students are asked if they have experienced these features before. The teacher reads the text aloud while students follow along. Pairs read the text again with their partner, focusing on different plant parts and their functions. Then, pairs discuss one thing they learned from the text and work together to fill out an evidence table about plant parts.

The materials reviewed for Grade 2 integrate limited interactive tools that support student engagement in the three dimensions when applicable. In a small number of lessons, students use digital simulations, interactive maps, or digital games to support sensemaking. Some of the interactive tools are used in the optional Extension activities. When digital tools are used, guidance for teachers is centered around the facilitation of the tools for students to use in context with the lesson. There are no options to customize simulations for local use. Examples include:

• In Grade 2, Life Science, How Can We Find The Best Place For A Plant To Grow, Lesson 8: Home on the Range, there is a simulation that allows students to explore where animals and plants live and where they overlap. They explore different habitats and the animals and plants that live there. They can display multiple ranges at once to see what they notice about the range of some plants and animals and why they are similar. They use this information to revise their explanation of how the acorn got into a planter on a balcony. 

• In Grade 2, Earth and Space Science, How Can We Map Land And Water On Earth, Lesson 8: Legendary Maps, there is an extension activity, The Glider Guide, that allows students to explore various kinds of land and water on Earth by using a simulation. In The Glider Guide, students act like explorers flying over three-dimensional landscapes. They view and analyze the kind of land and water they learned about in Lessons 2 and 5. 

The materials reviewed for Grade 2 do not include or reference digital technology that provides opportunities for teachers and/or students to collaborate with each other, when applicable. The materials are consistently designed for in-person student collaboration.

The materials reviewed for Grade 2 include visual design that supports students in engaging thoughtfully with the subject, and is neither distracting nor chaotic. The printed student materials across the series are visually appealing and support thoughtful engagement in the subject. There are no distracting images or unnecessary designs. Color-coding is deliberate and helpful as are icons and call-out boxes that remain consistent across all modules. 

Student materials are consistent in layout with minimal worksheets for each unit. They are clear with a title followed by instructions in a legible font. There is ample space for student work with boxes or other scaffolds drawn for student use. Where writing is necessary, wide-spaced lines are provided. Graphics and icons are bold and easily recognizable. However, the difference between Activity Sheets and Notebook Sheets is not clearly marked for student use.

Student digital resources are offered on a separate website that houses links for the lesson videos and PDFs for images. Videos are hosted through YouTube and are easy to navigate. Simulation links are also hosted on the separate website and are easy to find with directions that are clear and visually appealing. The student digital resources are not linked on the teacher digital resources page, they are a separate URL printed within the Teacher’s Guide. 

The printed teacher guides are arranged uniformly across each module. Each guide includes: Curriculum Overview, Module Overview, Lesson Planner, Guide to Module Investigations, individual lesson plans, and blackline masters. Teacher guides consistently use clear, purposeful color coding and iconography.

Digital materials for Grade 2 are generally easy to navigate. However, some of the resources have inconsistent or unclear labeling and filtering. Additionally, the online teacher guide can be cumbersome to navigate because it lacks a clickable table of contents.

The materials reviewed for Grade 2 provide teacher guidance for the use of embedded technology to support and enhance student learning, when applicable. Every lesson contains a Preparation Section that tells teachers which digital resources should be used and how to prepare them for each lesson. There is also teacher guidance around using the simulations or videos and how to facilitate the related activities. It offers suggestions for how to assist students with the outcomes (making observations, asking questions, collecting data, discussions, etc). It also includes suggestions for how students should view the technology (as a class, in pairs, repeated viewings, when to stop the video, etc). Examples include:

• In Grade 2, Engineering Design, How Can We Stop Land From Washing Away?, Lesson 1: Late to School, the teacher shows the Ada video and stops it after Ada says, “Looking is one way I make observations.” Students think about different ways they make observations. Later in the lesson, the teacher is directed to share the rest of the video with the class from the beginning. Students reflect on the video and think quietly about what may have happened and why. Using evidence from the video, students write their initial explanations and the teacher is directed to replay the video for students who might benefit from rehearing Ada’s descriptions of her observations.