The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 6 partially meet expectations that supporting content enhances focus and coherence by engaging students in the major work of the grade. In some cases, the supporting work enhances and supports the major work of the grade level, and in others, it does not.

Examples where connections are present, but the connections to major work are not well explored and therefore support a partial rating include:

Non-Major Cluster: 6.G.A - solve real-world and mathematical problems involving area, surface area, and volume is in Unit 5.

• Activity 23, pages 289-303, have students substitute numbers and determine if equations are true which supports 6.EE.
• Activity 24, pages 305-314, have students substitute numbers and determine if equations are true which supports 6.EE and plot negative and positive numbers on a coordinate grid which supports 6.NS.C.
• Activity 25, pages 317-329, have students solve equations to find surface area which supports 6.EE.
• Activity 26, pages 331-341, have students solve equations to find volume which supports 6.EE.

Non-Major Cluster: 6.NS.B - Compute fluently with multi-digit numbers and find common factors and multiples is in Unit 1.

• Activity 1, pages 3-24, has students working with decimal operations that will support solving expressions/equations/inequalities in 6.EE .
• Activity 3, pages 35-43, has students find the GCF and LCM which will support 6.NS.A.

Examples where connections are missed:

• Unit 6- Activity 28, pages 363-376, has students working with measures of center which could have some questions that lead to the major work in 6.EE.B.
• Unit 7- Activity 31, pages 409-420, is about personal financial literacy and could be used to engage 6.NS.C and 6.EE. However, the publisher makes no connections to Grade 6 standards at all in this unit. The teacher would need to not only relate the unit to the standards, but also make connections to the major work.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 6 partially 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. With embedded assessment days not included there are approximately 124 days of lessons in the materials. There needs to be additional material, other than assessment days, to ensure a student grasps all of the major work at this grade level. Overall, the amount of content that is designated for this grade level is short of the amount of material needed to make it truly viable for one school year.

• According to the pacing guide, each period is 45 minutes in length and there is a suggested 124 days of lessons.
• When embedded assessments are also included in the pacing guide and if all are given during the course of the year the total would be 141 days.

The guiding focus taken for this indicator for our team was, "Will the non-major and major work of this material be enough to prepare a student for the next grade level?" With the amount of days, and with many of those days not focusing on major work and the non-major work days not often supporting the major work of the grade, it will require the teacher to make significant modifications to prepare the student for the next grade level and supports this indicator receiving a partially meets rating.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 6 partially meet the expectations for the material to be consistent with the progressions in the standards. Content from prior and future grade levels are not clearly identified and a teacher will have to spend much time unpacking the activities to identify the non-grade level material. Also, materials do not always relate grade-level concepts explicitly to prior knowledge from earlier grades within each lesson. Connections are not explicitly made to content in future grades. However, in general, the progressions of the standards are followed throughout this course.

Some examples of areas where identification of standards from lower/upper grades would be beneficial are:

• Unit 1 Activity 1-1 compares whole numbers and decimals as foundational work for this unit. This activity addresses standards from Grade 5 (5.NBT). While this work is necessary for students to be successful, the publisher does not illustrate a direct relationship with current grade level clusters.
• Unit 1 Activity 5 does not have a specific content standard listed. The work of this activity is from previous grade levels (5.NF).
• Unit 1 Activity 6 lists 6.NS.A.1 as the standard for the activity, but the work discussed is from 5.NF.2.
• Unit 2 Activity 7 addresses work from a major cluster 6.NS and transitions nicely to Activity 8. However, the work from Activity 8 addresses content from a major cluster from Grade 7 (7.NS). Additionally, Activity 10 addresses Grade 7 work (7.NS).

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 6 partially meet the expectation of giving all students extensive work with grade-level problems. Overall, the materials do not consistently give students of varying abilities extensive work with grade-level problems.

For each activity, there is anywhere from one to seven standards attached, and there are two to five lessons based on that activity to extend and develop the understanding of the standards included in the activity. For struggling learners or those that need enrichment, the book does provide pointers interspersed throughout the units with ideas on how to differentiate or teach the topic in a different way.

Examples of this are:

• When necessary, mini lessons are inserted to help remind students of the basic skills that are needed. For example, on page 4, there is a suggestion for a mini lesson on decimal place value.
• On page 65, there is a side note box that provides an alternative way to teach the concept.
• On page 183, the differentiating instruction box provides pointers on student pairings.

Some examples of the lessons that are not at the depth of knowledge needed to prepare a student for the next grade are:

• Unit 1 Activity 4, Lesson 4-3 on mixed numbers is an example of a low depth of knowledge lesson.
• Unit 3, Activity 11, Lesson 11-1 on order of operations is also very procedural and not at the level needed to prepare a student for the next grade level.

Examples of lessons that do give a student extensive work at the grade level and are real world application problems covering the major work of the grade are:

• Unit 3, Activity 14, Lesson 14-3 on solving division equations
• Unit 4, Activity 18, Lesson 18-1 on solving problems using ratios
• Unit 4, Activity 21, Lesson 21-3 on finding the whole given a part and the percent

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 6 partially meet the expectation of relating grade-level concepts explicitly to prior knowledge from earlier grades. Overall, materials only generally relate grade-level concepts explicitly to prior knowledge from earlier grades.

Each unit begins with an overview that explains what earlier knowledge will be extended in the activities themselves and then each activity has an "Activity Standards Focus" section that will explain the connections between the previous grades and the new learning. This is rather a general overview and is never specific as to where the connections are actually happening and between which grades.

Example of the general overview:

• Unit 3, Activity 14 begins with the "Activity Standards Focus" saying, "In previous grades students have solved multiplication and division problems." This is how each activity begins and then presents a slight change in what was solved based on what the new learning is.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 6 partially meet the expectations for fostering coherence through connections at a single grade, where appropriate and required by the standards. Overall, materials include learning objectives that are visibly shaped by CCSSM cluster headings.

• The Unit titles are clearly labeled and aligned to the standards without a need for much interpretation.
  
  • Unit 1 - Number Concepts (6.NS)
  • Unit 2 - Integers (6.NS)
  • Unit 3 - Expressions & Equations (6.EE)

The instructional materials do include some problems and activities that serve to connect two or more clusters in a domain. They include a few problems and activities that connect two or more domains in a grade, in cases where these connections are natural and important. However, overall the materials only partially foster coherence through connections in Course 1.

• For the majority of the work, most standards were taught and covered within one lesson out of the entire series and not aligned with any other concept throughout the year.

Some examples of where connections were made and supported a partially meets rating are:

• 6.NS.C.6
  • This standard is first taught in Unit 2, Activity 7.
  • It is reinforced in Unit 2, Activity 9, as well as being necessary background knowledge for Unit 5, Activity 24.
  • This standard is taught at the beginning of the school year in Unit 2 and then also reviewed months later when Unit 5 is covered.
• 6.RP.A
  • This cluster first appears in Unit 4 Activity 17-1 and is addressed throughout Unit 4.

• 6.EE.C
  • This standard first appears in Unit 3 Activity 16.
  • It also appears in Unit 3 Activity 18.