4th Grade - Gateway 1

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 4 partially meet the criteria for anchor texts being of publishable quality and worthy of especially careful reading and consider a range of student interests.

Anchor texts in the majority of lessons and across the year-long curriculum are of publishable quality. Anchor texts are well-crafted, content rich, often award winning titles, and include a range of student interests, engaging students at the grade level for which they are placed. However, many texts include excerpts that may be missing information needed for students to understand the text. In some texts, much background knowledge is needed for students to engage with the materials. For example:

• In Theme 1, Lesson 2, students read “Mighty Jackie: The Strike-Out Queen” by Marissa Moss. This award winning biographical text, is a classic, age/grade appropriate text, which contains strong content and academic vocabulary and vibrant illustrations.
• In Theme 2, Lesson 6, students read an excerpt from “On the Banks of Plum Creek” by Laura Ingalls Wilder. This award winning historical fiction text is engaging, age/grade appropriate, and worthy of multiple reads.
• In Theme 3, Lesson 12, students read “Mountains” by Seymour Simon. This award winning nonfiction text is challenging and age/grade appropriate. This text contains strong content and academic vocabulary, vibrant photographs, and informative graphics.
• In Theme 4, Lesson 19, students read “Juan Verdades: The Man Who Couldn’t Tell a Lie” by Joe Hayes. This award winning, folktale text is classic and age/grade appropriate. This text is thought-provoking and contains vibrant illustrations.
• In Theme 5, Lesson 23, students read and excerpt from “The Cricket in Times Square” by George Selden. This award winning, fantasy text is classic and contains strong academic vocabulary.
• In Theme 6, Lesson 28, students read “The Bunyans” by Audrey Wood. This award winning, tall tale text is classic and age/grade appropriate, and it contains vibrant illustrations.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 4 partially meet the criteria for materials supporting students’ increasing literacy skills over the course of the school year. (Series of texts should be at a variety of complexity levels appropriate for the grade band.)

As the year progresses, students read texts at a variety of complexity levels. For each text, the routine for reading and analyzing the text is similar and does not change based on text complexity. Scaffolding remains the same with no gradual release of responsibility and very little increase in expectations. Expectations from beginning to ending units don't seem to increase significantly. Most comprehension skills or strategies so not spiral back during the year, and don't necessarily increase in rigor or increase students' skill development. Culminating tasks do not require an increase of skills across the year and do not lead to proficiency in reading independently at grade level at the end of the school year.

While there is a variety of text complexities across the year, and most texts increase in difficulty throughout the year quantitatively, scaffolding remains the same with no gradual release of responsibility and very little increase in expectations. There are very few opportunities for independent practice with the text and no gradual release of responsibility provided students through the course of the year. While the rigor increases quantitatively, the task considerations remain consistent, with most being teacher directed. For example, in the beginning of the year, in Theme 2, Lesson 8, students are taught the comprehension strategy of summarization. Using a transparency from the teacher materials, the teacher models how to read, pause, and summarize important ideas doing a “think aloud”. There is guided practice as students read aloud and practice summarizing, then students work in pairs selecting a passage from a fiction book and taking turns reading and summarizing each paragraph. Throughout the year, while students are reading anchor texts, the teacher is instructed, in the “Apply Comprehension Strategies” section of the Teacher Edition, to remind students that good readers pause while they read to summarize sections of text, such as in Theme 3, Lesson 11, page T41. The teacher then does a think aloud to demonstrate and reminds students to pause and summarize what they have read. By the end of the year, in Theme 6, Lesson 26, Page T32, the teacher is teaching summarization as the comprehension strategy, telling students that pausing to summarize will help them better understand what they read. The teacher models with a think aloud, students practice reading and jotting down main points, then work in pairs selecting a short nonfiction passage and take turns reading and summarizing. There is no release of responsibility leading to independence.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 4 partially meet the criteria that anchor and supporting texts provide opportunities for students to engage in a broad range of text types and disciplines as well as a volume of reading to achieve grade level reading proficiency.

There are opportunities for students to read a range and volume of texts. The materials provide some experiences with independent reading. Teacher materials lack explicit directions to help students build their skills to read on grade level independently by the end of the year, and weekly lessons have minimal time dedicated to students reading independently.

In each lesson, students interact with a getting started story, a read-aloud, a whole-group vocabulary selection, anchor text, paired text read, and a self-selected text read during center work. Leveled readers are provided for small-group, differentiated work. Resources are provided to offer students a variety of texts of different lengths and genres. There are longer main selections, which often are excerpts from complete literary or informational books for children. There are paired selections, shorter in length, provided as a companion text, so students can compare and contrast characters, genre elements, text features, content, and other aspects of the texts.

A Reading Adventure: Student Magazine is used for supplemental lessons to extend the Common Core. Additional texts related to the Themes are provided as leveled reading selections. These selections are suggested in the Resources section of the Teacher Edition on pg. R9.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 4 partially meet the criteria that most questions, tasks, and assignments are text dependent/specific, requiring students to engage with the text directly (drawing on textual evidence to support both what is explicit as well as valid inferences from the text).

The materials reviewed contain some questions and tasks requiring students to engage with the text directly and draw on textual evidence to support answers, but the teacher will need to supplement many to assure students in Grade 4 have strong grade-level text-focused questions over the course of the school year. Some questions asked include those which require both explicit answers and inferences from the text. Materials include questions requiring students to engage with the text in multiple sections including Check Comprehension, Monitor Comprehension, and Making Predictions. However, many of the questions and tasks do not meet the expectations of the Grade 4 standards. There are some quality examples provided in the Extending the Common Core State Standards Teacher Support Book, but only a few examples are included for each theme.

Examples of how the program uses questions, tasks, and assignments with texts include the following:

• In Theme 1, Lesson 3, Day 2, the teacher is provided formative questions to monitor student comprehension. Students are asked, “Why is the heading on page 87 ‘The Bad Good-bye?’”
• In Theme 1, Lesson 3, Day 2, after reading the selection, students are asked to respond to the question, “How does Zuri feel before she reads Danitra’s first letter? How does she feel after she reads it?”
• In Theme 2, Lesson 7, Day 3, after reading “Hats Off to the Cowboy” by Red Steagall, students are asked to respond to the poem: “What is Brewster Higley’s perspective on, or opinion of, the plains?” This question requires students to engage with the text while making inferences based on the tone of the poem.
• In Theme 3, Lesson 12, after reading two paired texts, students are asked to “Compare and contrast the descriptions of Mount Everest in Mountains and in “To the Top of the World”.” Additionally, students complete a writing task in which they choose a cause-and-effect relationship seen in Mountains: “Draw a picture that illustrates the effect. Then write a caption to describe each picture.”
• In Theme 6, Lesson 27, students are asked to find answers to the questions in the Monitor Comprehension section. Students are required to use the story from the Anthology text, “Grand Canyon, a Trail Through Time.” Students are asked, “What is the main idea of the final paragraph? How do you think the riders and hikers felt about the experiences of descending to the bottom of the cave?”

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 4 partially meet the criteria for materials providing frequent opportunities and protocols for evidence-based discussions (small groups, peer-to-peer, whole class) that encourage the modeling and use of academic vocabulary and syntax.

The curriculum provides opportunities for students to engage in evidence-based discussions but not all are rich and rigorous. The opportunities provide limited protocols to support vocabulary and syntax throughout each unit or within lessons. Materials include practices to build robust vocabulary and application of content words, but not academic vocabulary and syntax. Themes provide limited information on how teachers can provide support and scaffolds with collaborative conversations. Most discussions are whole group with limited opportunities for small group or peer-to-peer discussion.

Each Theme has a Speaking and Listening page that provides minimal scaffolding of instruction for students to prepare and share their writing. Although speaking and listening tasks are included in various spots throughout the year, there is limited instruction to support students’ mastery of listening and speaking skills. The opportunities do not adequately address the mastery of grade-level speaking and listening standards. Examples include, but are not limited to:

• In each lesson, the Warm-Up Routines include objectives such as “listen attentively and respond appropriately to oral communication; and to write and speak in complete sentences." There are some basic directions about communicating with words and without words. Two discussion questions are included after each warm-up read aloud.
• While reading the anchor text for each lesson, the teacher is monitoring comprehension through questioning the whole-group. While the expectation is that students are reading and responding to the whole-class discussion, no supports are provided to model and encourage the use of academic vocabulary. On Day 4 of each lesson, there is a Speaking and Listening mini-lesson.
• In some discussions, directions lack any reference to returning to the text or using evidence from the text in their discussions such as in Theme 2, Lesson 7, pg. T131, following the reading of Justin and the Best Biscuits in the World, students are to complete the Think Critically section in their book. The teacher has the option to assign students to either discuss or write their responses to the questions. This pattern is followed after the reading of each anchor text for each lesson. Some of the questions include: “Why does Justin feel guilty after he has breakfast with Grandpa? Why doesn't’ Justin want to do the chores around the house when he visits Grandpa? How does the author show that the conflict in the selection has been resolved?”
• Activities in the Leveled Reader routine pages do not contain a protocol to support evidence-based discussions that encourage the modeling and use of academic vocabulary and syntax.
• Some instructions for discussion protocols are present, but no specific directions are provided on how to use these protocols in a reading discussion. For example, in the supplementary Teacher Support Book, Theme 2, Speaking and Listening section, the teacher is teaching and modeling how to participate in group discussions. “Explain that group members take on roles, or special jobs, to help discussions run smoothly.” Students use the supplementary student magazine, Reading Adventures, to practice participating in a group discussion with the following scenario: “Imagine that you are a group of chefs who want to make improvements at a restaurant. As a group, choose your roles. Then decide on a topic, such as menu choices or restaurant decor. Begin your discussion. Be sure to listen carefully and respond politely.” While this practice prepares students to be effective members of a discussion group, there are no protocols for using this to discuss text or the use of academic vocabulary and syntax.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 4 partially meet the criteria for materials including a mix of on-demand and process writing (e.g. multiple drafts, revisions over time) and short, focused projects, incorporating digital resources where appropriate.

Each Theme includes a Reading-Writing Connection that spans the entire five week Theme incorporating the stages of the writing process, prewrite, draft, revise, proofread, and publish. Materials include both on-demand and process writing with opportunities for students to edit and publish pieces. Each process writing is completed within a one week time frame. While there are many opportunities for writing, there are few opportunities for students to use technology to produce and publish writing as required by standard W.4.6. Additionally, thematic projects are only partially aligned to the grade-level standards, and there is little evidence to suggest students write routinely over an extended time frame as required by the writing standard, W.4.10.

Within each lesson, students read paired text, followed by an on-demand writing task that requires students to use their knowledge of the texts. As part of the daily, small group instruction, students have a short writing assignment aligned with the whole-class writing activity for that lesson. In each Lesson, students are asked to work through the writing process to produce a short piece of writing. Day 1: Introduce, Day 2: Pre-write, Day 3: Draft, Day 4: Revise/Edit, and on Day 5: Revise/Share.

Writing opportunities exist for on-demand writing at the end of each selection with a timed writing. Writing prompts include some guidance for students but lack pacing guidance. Student writing opportunities frequently do not require textual evidence. There is no provision for utilizing digital resources in writing. On-demand writing opportunities include prompts such as:

• In Theme 1, Lesson 2, page T148, students write a description of a setting, analyzing the mentor text, Mighty Jackie The Strike-Out Queen by Marissa Moss, to determine how the author lets the main character’s personality come through.
• Think Critically: There is a text-dependent on-demand writing task included with the question set following each main reading selection. For example, in Theme 5, Lesson 12, following Mountains by Seymour Simon, question 5 asks “Different types of mountains form in different ways. Use information and details from the selection to explain: how dome mountains form, and how dome mountains are different from volcanic mountains.”
• Once during each Theme, students are asked to complete one 45-minute on-demand piece of writing in response to a prompt. Students prewrite, organize ideas using a graphic organizer, draft, revise and proofread.

Writing opportunities also exist for process writing during each five week Theme. Writing prompts include guidance for students but lack pacing guidance. Literary selections are utilized as mentor texts but writings do not require textual evidence. There is no provision for utilizing digital resources in process writing. Process writing opportunities include prompts such as:

• The Reading-Writing Connection for Theme 3, following lesson 1, pages T78-T93 indicates students will analyze an explanatory essay, generate questions to plan an explanatory essay, learn and apply outlining skills, draft the essay, revise by rearranging sentences, proofread, self-evaluate and publish. There is no guidance for pacing, except that the teacher is to adjust the pacing to meet students’ needs. The Lesson Planner for Lesson 1, page T20-T21, does not dedicate any time for the Reading-Writing Connection, nor do any of the other weekly lessons in the theme.
• In Theme 6, Lesson 29, students have the opportunity to write a week long writing task of a biography. On Day 1, students are introduced to the writing task, on Day 2, students begin writing brainstorming their biography, on Day 3, students prewrite, on Day 4, students draft, and on Day 5, reflect and revise. This writing task can be used if the student selects this as their final work to review, revise, edit, and then publish during Lesson 30.
• In the Teacher Support Book, an extra writing lesson is provided for each Theme. For example, for Theme 3, there is a lesson on Adding Support in an Explanatory Text. Students use a piece of text from the Student Magazine as a model for the topic of the lesson. For example, for Theme 3, students use examples from an article on service dogs to learn how to add quotations from reliable sources.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 4 partially meet the criteria for materials providing opportunities for students to address different text types of writing that reflect the distribution required by the standards.

The Reading-Writing Connection ties a process writing task to the anchor text in Lesson 1 of each Theme. The writing genres for each of the six Reading-Writing Connections are: Personal Narrative, Response to Literature, Explanatory Essay, Persuasive Essay, Story, and Research Report. Weekly lessons partially support students’ skill development to complete the Reading-Writing Connection. Genres for the weekly lessons include: narrative poem, journal entry, cause/effect essay, letter, diary, adventure scene, autobiographical composition, fable explanatory paragraph, and tall tale. The writing prompts are balanced between informative and narrative with few opportunities for opinion pieces. There are limited monitoring and modeling sections that will help guide students with their independent writing time. While materials provide sufficient opportunities for a year’s worth of writing, materials lack the rigor to support students in meeting the standards for writing.

Materials lack instructional writing support for students and teachers. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:

• In Theme 3, Lesson 11, students write a cause and effect paragraph as the writing task for the week. Students analyze the mentor text, “Mimicry and Camouflage” by Mary Hoff and the student writing model to determine the cause and effect clue words used by the authors. Students then address the prompt, “Think about a plant or animal that depends on mimicry or camouflage to survive. Now, write a composition that describes this plant or animal’s type of trickery.” students are instructed to think about audience, purpose for writing, and the causes and effects they want to show. They draft their composition using the following steps: Introduce the topic, organize the information using clue words to connect ideas, conclude by restating the topic sentence, check for complete sentences, correct capitalization, and correct punctuation. The rubric used by student pairs to discuss their writing does not address Standard W.4.2. and the instruction needed to be proficient in informative/explanatory writing.
• In Theme 2, Lesson 9, Day 5, students have an opportunity to monitor their work. The teacher directions are insufficient to support effective self-monitoring of the student's progress when writing an explanatory paragraph. The directions state, "Have partners use this checklist to check their paragraph." There is a lack of scaffolding to ensure that students know what each of the components are in the rubric. Students have a limited amount of time to work on parts of the paragraph throughout each lesson.
• In Theme 6, Lesson 30, Day 2, the teacher instructions are insufficient support to effectively monitor student progress when writing a review. The directions state, “Remind students that good writers carefully organize their ideas to help readers understand their writing.” While students are not explicitly taught what “a clear beginning" looks like, sounds like, or feels like, some additional guided statements are offered to help support the writer, such as:
  • Ideas are organised in a logical order
  • The compositions has a clear beginning
  • Events are described in a logical order.

A balance of types of writing exists, but writing tasks do not build in rigor throughout the year as shown by:

• Theme 1 – Reading Writing Connection: Personal Narrative; On Demand Writing – personal narrative – saving for an item you wish to buy
• Theme 2 – Reading Writing Connection: Response to Literature; On Demand Writing – Response to Literature
• Theme 3 – Reading Writing Connection: Explanatory Essay; On Demand Writing – essay about chores you do at home
• Theme 4 – Reading Writing Connection: Persuasive Essay; On Demand Writing – persuasive essay
• Theme 5 – Reading Writing Connection: Story; On Demand Writing – story about two children at a park
• Theme 6 – Reading Writing Connection: Research Report; On Demand Writing – essay about a hobby

The materials reviewed for Story Town Grade 4 partially meet the criteria for materials, questions, and tasks address grade-level CCSS for foundational skills by providing explicit instruction and assessment in phonics and word recognition that demonstrate a research-based progression.

Teacher Edition materials provide a five-day instructional sequence that focuses on spelling words correctly using a spelling pattern. Each lesson includes Decode/Word Attack instruction that explicitly teach students to use structural analysis to decode and read unknown words connected to the focus of the lesson. Instruction is provided out of context and not connected to students’ reading and lessons include instruction from previous grades. Students take a weekly test and a theme test for each of the six themes. However, assessments do not include phonics and word recognition. In addition, opportunities are missed to provide instruction in irregularly spelled words.

Materials contain limited explicit instruction of irregularly spelled words, syllabication patterns, and word recognition consistently over the course of the year. For example:

• Students have opportunities to use combined knowledge of all letter-sound correspondences, syllabication patterns, and morphology (e.g., roots and affixes) to read accurately unfamiliar multisyllabic words in context and out of context. For example:
  • In Theme 1, Lesson 1, during Decoding/Word Attack Closed Syllable Pattern, the teacher writes summer and sandwich on the board and a volunteer reads them aloud, identifies how many syllables and where the words should be divided. Students work independently finding four multi-syllabic words in their Student Edition.
  • In Theme 2, Lesson 6, during Decoding/Word Attack Syllable Patterns: Consonant + le, the teacher writes the word cattle on the board and a volunteer reads it aloud. Students work independently looking in their content area text books for five words with the consonant plus -le pattern.
  • In Theme 3, Lesson 12, during Decoding/Word Attack Structural Analysis: Prefixes: re-, un-, non-, the teacher writes the word rebuild on the board. Students identify how many syllables and where the word should be divided. Working in small groups, students look in their content area text books to find six words with the prefixes re-, un- and non- write them sorting by prefix and circling the root word.
  • In Theme 4, Lesson 18, during Decoding/Word Attack Structural Analysis: Word Parts: over-, under-, sub- , the teacher writes the word overlooking on the bard and reads it aloud. The teacher breaks the word apart and blending these parts together to read the whole word. Partners look in content area textbooks to identify words with over-, under- and sub-. They list the words, sorting by beginning part.
  • In Theme 5, Lesson 24 during Decoding/Word Attack Structural Analysis: Suffixes in Combination, the teacher writes the word helpfulness on the board and reads it aloud. Students identify how many syllables and where the word should be divided. Students complete a chart that breaks four words into syllables and identifies the suffix. Students look in their content area text books to find words with suffix combinations, then write them circling the suffix and reading the words aloud.
  • In Theme 6, Lesson 27 during Decoding/Word Attack Structural Analysis: Greek and Latin Word Parts, the teacher writes the words visitors and visa on the board and asks students to identify the syllable that is the same. The teacher writes a chart on the board and guides students to decode each word in the chart by identifying the Greek or Latin root. Students look through their textbooks for five examples with these Greek or Latin roots

Limited assessment opportunities are provided over the course of the year to inform instructional adjustments of phonics and word recognition to help students make progress toward mastery. Phonics is assessed through the weekly spelling tests. For example:

• In Theme 4, beginning on page A2 and going through A5, there are Using Assessment to Inform Instruction pages for Lessons 1 through 5. These pages show the tested skills for the lesson. None of the spelling skills are listed as a tested skill.
• In Theme 4, on page A6, tested skills are listed from the Theme 4 Test. Spelling is listed as a tested skill and Spelling Practice Book pages are listed for extra practice.
• In Theme 4, pages S2 through S36, students participate in Small-Group Instruction lessons. Lessons do not include the Spelling/Phonics skill as a reteach.

Materials contain explicit instruction of word solving approaches (graphophonic and syntactic) to decode unfamiliar words. For example:

• In Theme 4, Lesson 18, page T205, students participate in a Decoding/Word Attack lesson to use structural analysis to decode longer words.
• In Theme 6, Lesson 29, page T267, students participate in a Decoding/Word Attack lesson to identify common prefixes and suffixes and to use structural analysis to decode longer words.

The materials reviewed for Story Town Grade 4 partially meet the criteria for materials, lessons, and questions provide instruction in and practice of word analysis skills in a research-based progression in connected text and tasks.

Core materials include Leveled Readers and a reading selection for each lesson. The Leveled Readers are provided on three levels: Below-Level, On-Level and Advanced and include the Robust Vocabulary words from the lesson. Opportunities are missed for students to practice or apply word analysis skills in connected text. Independent activities ask students to find examples in their content area text books. In addition, there is no evidence in the core materials that students are assessed in their ability to use word analysis in context.

Limited opportunities are provided over the course of the year in core materials for students to learn, practice, and apply word analysis skills in connected texts and tasks. For example:

• In Theme 1, Lesson 1, during Decoding/Word Attack, students practice decoding closed syllable patterns. Two of the six words are from the core text, The Hot and Cold Summer. Students look through their Student Edition to find four examples of multisyllabic words with closed syllable pattern.
• In Theme 2, Lesson 7, during Decoding/Word Attack Syllable Patterns: Same Medial Consonants, the teacher writes pepper, shallow, and fluffy on the board modeling breaking the word between two consonants. The class practices by decoding the syllables and blending them to read four words on the board. Partners look in magazines for five longer words that have the same medial consonants and list the words. Partners switch lists, break the words into syllables and read the words aloud.

• In Theme 5, Lesson 24, Leveled Readers are provided for students on three levels: Below-Level, On-Level and Advanced. Leveled Readers include the Robust Vocabulary words from the lesson: advantage, extract, remarkable, stealthy, suitable, withstand.
• In Theme 4, Lesson 17, page T148, Leveled Readers are provided for students on three levels: Below-Level, On-Level and Advanced. Leveled Readers include the Robust Vocabulary words from the lesson: ancestors, brilliant, exotic, graceful, mischievous, participate.

Materials include limited word analysis assessment to monitor student learning of word analysis skills.

• The Benchmark Assessments contain three tests (Beginning-of-Year, Mid-Year, and End-of-Year), which contain word analysis assessments. Some tests contain word analysis questions such as:
  • In the End-of-Year, students answer the following question:
    • Read this phrase from the article: “10 pieces of unlined white paper” What does the prefix un- suggest that the word unlined means in this sentence? Below the lines, having many lines, between the lines, not having lines