Kindergarten - Gateway 2

The instructional materials reviewed for Superkids Kindergarten partially meet the expectation that materials contain a coherently sequenced set of text-dependent questions and tasks that require students to analyze the integration of knowledge and ideas across both individual and multiple texts.

The materials contain questions both during and after reading; however, students are not asked to analyze the integration of knowledge and ideas across multiple texts. Text-based questions that lead students through the comprehension and main ideas of the text are only provided during the actual reading of the text. Questions are asked only during the read aloud. While they are appropriate for the read aloud activity, they do not support building knowledge once the activity is completed. 

There are very few tasks that ask students to demonstrate knowledge gained from a text or across multiple texts. Additionally, the major tasks are not always text-based. Students respond to their readings with self-to-text connections and write about topics without text support.

Examples of sequenced questions asked during read alouds include, but are not limited to: 

• In Unit 4, Lesson 3, during the reading of the Super Smart Interactive Digital Read-Aloud, “Camping”, the teacher is prompted to ask, “What do the read and blue arrows point to? What is at the end of the red hiking trail? What is at the end of the blue hiking trail?” Students must refer to and analyze the pictures and text in the story to answer.
• In Unit 14, Lesson 4, Teacher’s Guide, the students listen to an audio recording of the story, “The Big Bus”. After listening, students read the story in small groups and the teacher asks, “Why does Doc say the bus is a bit cold? How does Alf feel about the bugs on the bus? What does Ettabetta do about the bugs? Does Lily think the bus will make a good clubhouse? How do you know?” 
• In Unit 11, Lesson 6, After-Reading Discussion questions for the read-aloud story, “Ettabetta and the Enchanted Forest” to determine important ideas include, “What trick did Ettabetta play on the Superkids? Do you think it was nice of Ettabetta to play a trick on her friends? Did Ettabetta’s trick surprise you? Why or why not? Do you like stories with surprise endings? Why or why not?”
• In Unit 15, Lesson 5, the teacher asks, “What did we find out about warm colors on the last two pages? What did we find out about cool colors on the last two pages? Why do you think the artist used lots of red and yellow in this picture of a barn in summer?”
• In Unit 17, Lesson 4, the teacher asks, “Which sense were the last few pages about? What kind of information do your eyes tell your brain when you see something, such as an ice cream cone? What does this page tell us about how our sense of smell can help us?”
• In Unit 21, Lesson 3, the teacher asks, “Why do you think this page shows a king wearing a brick on his head? Why might it be great for a castle to have stone walls? Why did the author include pictures of rooms from different castles?”
• In Unit 23, Lesson 5, in order to help students understand steps in a process the teacher asks, “How is this new glass different from the old jar? What gave the glass its new shape?”. To help students draw conclusions, the teacher asks, “If you poured melted glass into a mold that looked like a square box, what would the new glass look like?”. To help students compare and contrast, the teacher asks, “What is one way the pictures with labels are the same? How is recycling cans at a factory like recycling jars?”. To help students understand picture-text relationships, the teacher asks, “What are some things that can be made from recycled metal?”

The instructional materials reviewed for Superkids Kindergarten partially meet the expectation that materials include a cohesive, year-long plan for students to interact with and build key academic vocabulary words in and across texts.

The materials provide year-long vocabulary development, but lack consistent explicit instruction in vocabulary words and support for the words throughout the year. For example, vocabulary words taught during the Student Book lesson are not correlated in the Super Smart lesson and are not supported across multiple texts. At times, attention is not paid to vocabulary essential to understanding the text and to high value academic words. While vocabulary learning is supported through speaking and listening, opportunities are missed for students to connect their learning to tasks. 

Examples of how vocabulary development is year-long, but lacks consistent instruction include, but are not limited to:

• In Unit 6, using the Super Smart article, “Play Ball!”, the teacher asks several questions to help students understand vocabulary, “When you bounce a ball, what does the ball do? When you shoot a basketball, what are you doing? How do you move your arms when you swing at a tennis ball?”
• In Unit 10, Lesson 6, the teacher introduces key vocabulary before reading. The teacher explains how some fish live in the ocean and students name other places where fish might also live. Next, the teacher and students discuss what gills are and how they are used. A picture card is displayed and the teacher points out where gills are located and helps students name the other parts of a fish such as scales. During and after reading, the teacher helps students develop vocabulary by asking, “What are baby fish called? What is another meaning of the word fry? What is a big group of fish called? What’s another meaning of the word school?”
• In Unit 14, Lesson 1, using the Super Smart article, “A Great Place”, the teacher asks text-specific questions to help students understand vocabulary, “What is your community? What’s another word that means the same as litter?”
• In Unit 15, Lesson 5, the teacher reads, “Colorific!” twice. Throughout the text, students understand vocabulary by answering the following questions, “What does it mean to create the perfect colors? Which colors are called primary colors? What are they the most important for doing?”
• In Unit 17, Lesson 2, students read, “The Odd Comics” and discuss the the following key vocabulary terms: comics, odd, sprinkler, glasses, rest, and blurry. The teacher reads the book title with students. The teacher points out the comics that Ettabetta and Oswald are holding and explains what comics are. Next, the teacher points out in the picture the sprinkler shooting out water and the towels around Ettabetta’s and Oswald’s necks and asks what the Superkids might do in this story.  Students may respond by saying, “Read odd comics and run through the water sprinkler.”
• In Unit 19, Lesson 1, students read, “A Medal for Icky” and discuss the following key vocabulary terms: medal, race, fastest, fantastic, upset, and plan.
• In Unit 21, Lesson 7, the teacher reads, “Real Kings and Queens” twice and asks students questions to help them understand the vocabulary, "What does the ruler of a country or kingdom do?”. The teacher explains a ruler is the leader of a country who makes the rules that other people in that country must follow.

The instructional materials reviewed for Superkids Kindergarten partially meet the expectation that materials contain a year-long, cohesive plan of writing instruction and tasks which support students in building and communicating substantive understanding of topics and texts.

The materials include writing instruction aligned to the standards for the grade level and writing instruction supports student growth over the school year. Materials include lesson plans with teacher modeling; however, protocols are not in place for teachers to implement and monitor students’ writing development. In Kindergarten, writing occurs daily, but includes handwriting skills rather than tasks focusing on the writing process.

Writing rubrics lack detailed indicators to determine next steps in order to improve student writing development. Writing tasks do not always require students to reference the text, therefore, students do not gain a substantive understanding of texts through writing. Materials include supports for students working above and below grade level expectations. To assure comprehensive support of writing development, the teacher will need to supplement with these supports. 

Examples of how materials include instruction aligned to standards, but do not monitor writing development nor consistently require students to reference texts include, but are not limited to:

• In Unit 2, Lesson 6, the lesson focuses on creating a class shared list of things they like to do. After, students draw something they like to do. The Super Smart Informational Digital Read-Aloud text is, “The Odd Ostrich”, which is an informational text about ostriches. No mention of the topic or text is included within the writing completed by students.
• In Unit 5, Lesson 7, the final expectation is two event drawings which students can label with a word. Students draw who made them feel better. The teacher distributes students’ Ouch Stories from the previous lesson and reminds them that they drew themselves hurt or sick in the first box. Students draw a picture to show the person who helped them feel better and what that person did to help. If students already know how to write the person’s name, for example, “Mom”, they are encouraged to write it near their drawing.
• In Unit 16, Lesson 4, students write a sentence and draw a picture about an event. In the previous lesson they created a book cover. After writing, students “share the first page of their book with a partner.” In Lesson 5, page 24, Teacher’s Guide, students draw and write a sentence about another event in their story. When finished, students share their stories in small groups.
• In Unit 22, Lessons 1-3, students work on an opinion writing for a book review. In Lesson 1, the teacher has students choose one of four books they liked and has students discuss what they liked about the book. In Lesson 2, students begin writing their book review using the sentence frame, “This book is about ________.” In Lesson 3, students continue writing about what they think about the book and why. Students are provided with a sentence frame, “I think this book is ______ because ______.”

The instructional materials reviewed for Superkids Kindergarten partially meet the criteria that materials include a progression of focused, shared research and writing projects to encourage students to develop knowledge and understanding of a topic using texts and other source materials.

While there is evidence to support a progression of writing tasks that scaffold students’ writing skills, encourage students to develop knowledge, and understand a topic, there is insufficient evidence of students engaging in learning about the components of focused, shared research, and writing projects utilizing texts and other source materials.

Research skills, questions, and tasks almost always involve a single text or the background knowledge and experiences of the student. The materials provide writing instruction, but there is a lack of evidence to support explicit writing instruction in shared research, writing skills, and tasks. No evidence was found to support research projects being built into contexts and culminating tasks. The materials do not provide opportunities for both short and long projects. There is a lack of instructional support for teachers to develop student knowledge of a topic using the provided resources throughout the year.

Examples of how research and writing projects use one text, are not culminating tasks, and lack support for teachers include, but are not limited to:

• In Unit 4, Lesson 1, the teacher and students make a shared list of favorite places using chart paper. The teacher reminds students that Alf likes to imagine having adventures in lots of exciting places. Students are asked to name some of the places Alf imagines visiting. The teacher points out Alf dreams about exciting places far away, but a place doesn’t have to be far away to be special.  The teacher asks students if they have any favorite places they like to go to again and again. The teacher tells students in this lesson, they will make a list of some of their favorite places and in the next lessons, they will draw a picture to tell others about a place that is special to them.
• In Unit 13, Lesson 2, students are asked to draw and write about their favorite Superkid from the Student Reader. The teacher models using details from the stories as reasons when speaking, but the modeled writing is simply a labeled picture and sentence fragment explaining what the student would like to do with the Superkid. Modeling does not include text support, the teacher uses the “Superkids Chart” with pictures and names of the characters for ideas. Students are encouraged to pick a Superkid and decide something fun they would like to do with the Superkid, but no use of the text is involved.
• In Unit 20, Lesson 1, students begin writing about an animal they know a lot about using a graphic organizer students completed about their animal in Unit 19. Students write sentences to tell what their animal eats and does. In Lesson 2, page 45, the teacher introduces headings and together the class brainstorms headings. The students then add headings to their books. In Lesson 3, pages 46-47, the teacher models editing and students edit for capitalization and ending punctuation.

The instructional materials reviewed for Superkids Kindergarten partially meet the criteria that materials provide a design, including accountability, for how students will regularly engage in a volume of independent reading either in or outside of class.

Throughout the lessons, there is evidence to support independent reading. The instructional materials support independent reading and aid both teachers and students with occasional built in supports and scaffolding opportunities to foster independence; however, there is a lack of evidence to support students reading across a wide span of texts. Most texts are not organized with built in supports and scaffolds to foster independence. The materials lack opportunities to support a balance between in-class and out-of class time for independent reading. Procedures are not found in lessons for growth towards consistent independent reading besides a "Teach the Informational Library Book" or as a "Pointer" for teachers. There is not a system for the teacher or student to monitor and track independent reading.

Examples of how materials do not include independent reading opportunities nor teacher supports include, but are not limited to:

• In the Superkids Program Guide, page 35, when teaching the guided reading Library Book lessons, each lesson ends with suggestions for Independent Activities students can do on their own. Activities include rereading for fluency practice, drawing and/or writing in response to the text just read, and completing a Practice Page that helps build comprehension and vocabulary related to the text. Students can read, reread, or listen to Library Books from the current or previous units. Students are encouraged to read and discuss the books at home using the parent portal. On page 50, some suggestions for providing independent activities include: after children read a Library Book, teachers write or have students write the title on their Student Reading Log, and circle a facial expression to show how they liked the text. Student Reading Logs are printable from the teacher portal. However, the log is used just to log texts read during small-group guided reading and circling the facial expression for how they liked the book, not independent in-class reading. If a district has purchased the Superkids Library Books, parents and students can access these materials on a computer or tablet at home. Teachers can set up their class in the teacher portal and add parent names and emails for parents to set up an account online.
• In Unit 14, Lesson 4, while working with a small group, the rest of the class complete work they can do independently. For example, reread Student Book stories or Library Books, play games in Superkids Online Fun, or complete a Student Book page or a Practice Page. After students have read and discussed a story with the teacher, they reread the story on several occasions to an adult, an older child, on their own with or without audio support.
• In Unit 18, Lesson 1, to teach the lesson whole class, the teacher uses the online version of the book in the teacher portal. Students complete the Practice Page after reading the book. Teachers are prompted to make the book available for independent reading. In Lesson 4, the teacher teaches the easy, on-level, and challenging Library Books to small groups using the lessons in the Library Teacher’s Guide. Students complete the Practice Page after reading a book and the teacher makes the books available for independent reading.
• In Unit 21, Lesson 2, teachers are directed to teach the Informational Library book and make the books available for independent reading.  
• In Unit 22, Lesson 2, the teacher teaches the Library Book using the lesson in the Informational Text Library Teacher’s Guide to the whole class using the online version of the book in the teacher portal. Students complete the Practice Page after reading the book, and the teacher makes the books available for independent reading.