5th Grade - Gateway 2

The instructional materials for Grade 5 meet the criteria for texts being organized around a topic/topics or themes to build students’ ability to read and comprehend complex texts independently and proficiently. The series of texts in each collection are cohesive and are related to the anchor texts. All modules develop student’s knowledge through structured learning activities that provide effective scaffolding of content leading to students comprehending texts independently and proficiently.

Examples include:

• In Module 1, students study the theme/topic Cultures in Conflict. Students read to answer what it means to belong to a culture and to determine how a culture’s beliefs guide the actions of its people? And finally, what happens when different cultures come into conflict? Students read and discuss multiple texts to answer questions such as, “How did the United States' westward expansion impact Native American cultures in the West? How did the Nez Perce’s homeland sustain their lifestyle and culture? What role do stories play in Nez Perce culture? How does the conflict between the Nez Perce and the US government reveal differing cultural beliefs and values? What important beliefs and values guide Chief Joseph and his daughter, Sound of Running Feet?and What important Nez Perce beliefs and values does Chief Joseph convey in his Lincoln Hall speech?” Students read a novel, Thunder Rolling in the Mountains, by Scott O’Dell and Elizabeth Hall, a speech, Lincoln Hall Speech, Washington, D.C., January 14, 1879, by Chief Joseph, Nez Perce, and multiple stories such as, Coyote and the Monster Story Parts 1, 2, and 3, told by J. R. Spencer, How Beaver Stole Fire from the Pines. Students also study works of art and watch videos to build knowledge about what it means to belong in a culture.

• In Module 3, students study the topic of A War Between Us. Students are exposed to the many ways in which war impacts people and the many consequences of war. Students read firsthand accounts and historical fiction to answer the question, “How did the Civil War impact people?” Students read and discuss multiple texts to answer questions such as, “What factors led to the start of the Civil War? How did the Civil War impact boy soldiers? How did the Civil War impact girls and women? How did the Civil War impact free people of color in the South? and How did the Civil War impact the Pruitt family from the historical-fiction novel The River Between Us?” Students read texts such as articles like Hospitals and Medical Knowledge, Civil War Preservation Trust and Amputation, Civil War Preservation Trust. Students also read an historical account titled, The Boys’ War, by Jim Murphy, the novel, The River Between Us, by Richard Peck, and poetry such as, The Women Who Went to the Field, by Clara Barton. Students examine historical photographs, videos, and web pages to build knowledge about how war impacts people.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 5 meet the expectations that materials contain sets of coherently sequenced questions and tasks that require students to analyze the language, key ideas, details, craft, and structure of individual texts. The Implementation Guide notes: “Craft Questions teach students the elements of strong craft—writing, speaking, and listening—so that students become adept at applying these skills for a variety of purposes. Students explore the author’s craft and word choices, analyze the text’s structure and its implicit meaning, and attend to other unique features of the text. Students begin by examining high-quality exemplars of the craft. Then they receive progressive direct instruction in the skills necessary to practice and master the craft. Annotation during the first read aims to develop the habit of monitoring understanding of a text as students read. In subsequent reads, annotation focuses readers on deeper understanding, such as distinguishing among purpose, claim, and conclusion, noticing authors’ crafting of literary elements or text features, and/or supporting learning goals relevant to the text (e.g., character analysis, influence of setting).”

Examples include:

Module 1:

• In Lesson 4, groups work to discuss and record a main idea statement (“Boxes”) and at least two details (“Bullets”) the author uses to support the main idea.
• In Lesson 29, students are asked, “What questions could a writer ask to determine whether or not to add comparison-contrast transition?”

Module 2:

• In Lesson 2, students are asked, “How did Abbott and Costello’s delivery create humor and confusion?”
• In Lesson 27, students are asked, “What does a deeper exploration of Milo’s responses to challenges in the Mountains of Ignorance reveal?”

Module 3:

• In Lesson 17, students are asked, “What do you notice about the structure of chapters 1 and 2? In other words, how has the author organized, or set up, the story in chapters 1 and 2?”
• In Lesson 36, students are asked, “Which set of evidence best proves whether the impact of war is positive or negative?”

Module 4:

• In Lesson 19, student pairs read 5th Inning, using sticky notes to annotate key details that show the accomplishments of Negro League baseball players.
• In Lesson 2, students are asked, “How does an author’s choice of narrator impact how a story is told? Support your ideas with an example from one of the stories you have read this year.”

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 5 meet the expectations for materials containing 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. Each module contains focus questions that are included with a set of texts. Content Framing and Craft questions are then asked of both single and multiple texts to integrate and build knowledge in order for students to reach the module’s learning goals. All lessons include coherently sequenced sets of text-dependent questions and tasks that require students to analyze the integration of knowledge. Students also participate in at least one socratic seminar where multiple texts are discussed as well as completing New Read Assessments which provide students with texts they have not read before to demonstrate their ability to analyze the integration of knowledge and ideas.

For example, in Module 1, students study the focus question, “What role do stories play in Nez Perce culture?” Students analyze both single and multiple texts by answering Content Framing and Craft questions. Students read the text Coyote and the Monster Story, Parts 1, 2, and 3, by J.R. Spencer and answer, “What is the meaning of the story 'Coyote and the Monster' for the Nez Perce people?” Students also read the texts, Coyote and the Monster Story, Parts 1, 2, and 3, by J.R. Spencer and How Beaver Stole Fire from the Pines to answer questions such as, “How do Nez Perce stories build my knowledge of Nez Perce culture?”

Each End-of-Module Task ensures that students are analyzing the integration of knowledge and ideas across both individual and multiple texts. For example, in Unit 4 the End-of-Module Task states, “Write an informative/explanatory research essay in which you explain how an organization is using the sport of soccer to influence individuals and societies. Create a thesis with two points and use evidence from three sources, two of which are researched on your own, to support your points.”

The instructional materials for Grade 5 meet the expectations that questions and tasks support students’ ability to complete culminating tasks in which they demonstrate their knowledge of a topic (or, for grades 6-8, a theme) through integrated skills (e.g. combination of reading, writing, speaking, and listening).

Each module has several Focusing Question Tasks that scaffold the material to aid in the successful completing of the End-of-Module task. The materials contain sets of high-quality sequences of text-dependent questions and activities that build to each culminating task. Many tasks are focused on pieces of writing; however, students engage in speaking and listening as well as reading and writing to prepare for tasks, providing learning through integrated skills.

For example, in Module 2, the End-of Module task states,”Write an 'exploded moment' scene in which Milo encounters one of the demons from the Mountains of Ignorance on his return journey and helps him resolve a conflict related to the wordplay of his name and his experiences in The Phantom Tollbooth, by conveying wisdom related to the story’s central themes.” To prepare for this, students answer questions and complete tasks such as:

• Write an explanatory paragraph to explain how words create both confusion and humor in Bud Abbott and Lou Costello’s comedy routine,Who’s on First?
• Write a “character snapshot” scene featuring Milo and an invented character from Abandon Elementary School, including wordplay to describe both the setting and the character.
• Write an “exploded moment” scene featuring Milo and an invented character from Abandon Elementary School, including dialogue sequences to show conflicting ideas between characters.
• Write an explanatory paragraph to identify one overarching theme in Norton Juster’s The Phantom Tollbooth, and explain how Juster reveals this theme by revealing how the main character, Milo, changes from the beginning to end of the story.
• Participate in a Socratic Seminar: Explain how wordplay can create both confusion and humor, drawing on examples from the collection of jokes and riddles students shared and Abbott and Costello’s famous comedy routine, Who’s on First?
• Participate in a Socratic Seminar: Synthesize understanding of overarching themes in Norton Juster’s novel, The Phantom Tollbooth, drawing on evidence of how Milo has changed since the beginning of the book, what he has learned throughout his journey to the Lands Beyond, and how he has confronted and overcome challenges along the way.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 5 meet the expectations that materials include a cohesive, year-long plan for students to interact with and build key academic vocabulary words in and across texts. Vocabulary is taught both implicitly and explicitly, using words in the core and supplementary texts. As texts are read multiple times, students gain new vocabulary. Explicit vocabulary instruction focuses on Content Specific Vocabulary, Academic Vocabulary, and Text Critical Vocabulary. Materials focus on elements of vocabulary, such as abstract or multiple meanings, connotation, relationships among words, and morphology.

Vocabulary Routines can be found in the Resources section of the Implementation Guide and include routines and instructional examples such as the Frayer Model, Morpheme Matrix, Outside-In, Relationship Mapping, and Word Line. Teachers utilize Word Walls and Vocabulary Journals for students to record newly-acquired words and vocabulary strategies.

Appendix B includes vocabulary support that explains the implicit and explicit vocabulary instruction. For example, Core lessons, 75-min. daily: vocabulary study that is essential to understanding the text at hand. Instructional strategies are explicitly introduced and practiced during vocabulary instruction and put into practice during a reading of the text. Vocabulary Deep Dives: vocabulary instruction and practice that advances students’ knowledge of high-value words and word-solving strategies, focusing on aspects such as abstract or multiple meanings, connotation, relationships across words, and morphology. The appendix also includes a Module Word List and a list of words that would pose a challenge to student comprehension.

Module examples of vocabulary instruction include, but are not limited to:

• In Module 1, Lesson 1, Explain to students that they will take a closer look at the word culture. Display and distribute Handout 1C: Frayer Model. Instruct students to record the definition of culture in the upper left hand box of the Frayer Model: “the way a group of people lives and understands the world, including ideas, beliefs, and values; traditions; religion; language; rules; gender roles; food; clothing; art, music, dance, sports, and other ways of life.”
• In Module 2, Lesson 1, Deep Dive: Vocabulary, Instruct students to Think-Pair-Share, and ask: “What are the different meanings of the homographs left and left and homophones they’re, there, and their?”
• In Module 3, Lesson 26, Display the following sentence from The River Between Us with the idiom underlined or italicized: “[Dr. Hutchings] needed a little starch in his spine and [Delphine] was the one to put it there” (118).Instruct students to Think-Pair-Share, and ask: “What type of figurative language is the phrase ‘needed a little starch in his spine’?”
• In Module 4, Lesson 20, Instruct students to Think-Pair-Share to generate a list of words that use the prefix trans-. Call on volunteers to share examples; record and display examples on the board or on a piece of chart paper.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 5 meet the expectation for materials supporting students’ increasing writing skills over the course of the school year, building students’ writing ability to demonstrate proficiency at grade level at the end of the school year.

Through explicit learning-to-write instruction, teachers gradually release responsibility for a specific writing strategy through a series of lessons. One or more of the following Craft Stages shapes each lesson. (Implementation Guide)

• Examine: Students analyze how an exemplar models one or more writing strategies. The exemplar can come from authentic texts, class collaborative writing, or a module resource.
• Experiment: Students practice applying a target strategy. Scaffolded tasks provide significant support by limiting
  the volume of writing, providing parts of a writing piece, or focusing on a relatively simple topic.
• Execute: Students plan or draft a full writing piece, paying particular attention to applying the target strategy to
  support the purpose of the task.
• Excel: Students revise, edit, and respond to feedback on the pieces they drafted in the
• Execute stage, focusing on the target strategy. They reflect on their use of the strategy to refine their thinking about its use in current and future writing.

Students write an average of twenty or more minutes of writing pers lesson and are given explicit instruction of writing strategies. Students write both on-demand and process writing while accessing complex texts. There are a variety of writing performance tasks and Craft Lessons address 5 features; Structure, Development, Style, Conventions and process.

Students study Mentor texts and get feedback from the teacher, a peer, and themselves as well as being provided with writing checklist and rubrics to ensure that writing skills are grown throughout the year.

Examples of materials supporting students’ increasing writing skills include, but are not limited to:

• In Module 1, Lesson 22, student examine a painted essay with the Craft Question, “What is a Painted Essay?”. Students have learned about and practiced writing paragraphs. For Focusing Question Task 5, they write a longer essay to express their ideas and learn about the form of a basic essay.
• In Module 2, Lesson 32, students experiment with introductory elements using the mentor text, The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster and answering the Craft Question, “How does expanding sentences with introductory elements work?”
• In Module 3, Lesson 15, students execute planning an opinion essay. The teacher is to, “Circulate as students draft their essays; provide feedback to individuals, small groups, or the whole group as trends arise in students’ work. Students reread their drafts when they are finished. Then they self-assess, or trade papers with a partner, and check their work against the “Checklist for Success” on Assessment 12A. On the back of Assessment 12A, students explain one strength and one area of improvement for their own or a partner’s writing.”
• In Module 4, Lesson 31, student revise their explanatory essay and answer the Excel Craft Question, “How do I improve an explanatory essay, with a focus on the reflective conclusion?” Students work together with a partner to give feedback on each other’s essays and think about how they can improve them. Students add from the earlier Socratic Seminar, message discussion, or their Knowledge Journals and are reminded to focus on the conclusion to be sure it effectively restates the focus statement and gives the reader something to ponder.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 5 meet the expectations that materials include a progression of focused research projects to encourage students to develop knowledge in a given area, by confronting and analyzing different aspects of a topic using multiple texts and source materials. Modules are divided into Focus Questions that build knowledge of a topic using multiple texts. The focus questions all build to the End-of-Module Task that encompasses a module’s worth of texts and source materials. Students also complete shorter research projects throughout the modules. Teachers are also encouraged to use pausing points to complete student-led research projects. In every grade, at least one EOM Task focuses on a sustained research project. In addition, students conduct a variety of short research projects throughout the year.

Examples include:

• In Module 3, Lesson 32, teachers encourage students (after their learning about Delphine’s experience as a free woman of color) to conduct mini-research projects into the experiences of other African American women during the Civil War and how those experiences differed from Delphine’s. For example, students might explore the Underground Railroad and the critical roles that free African-American women like Harriet Tubman played in this network during the Civil War.
• In Module 4, the End-of-Module task is a sustained research project. Students research a soccer organization and describe how the organization is using soccer to influence individuals and societies, demonstrating their understanding of the power of sports.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 5 meet the expectations for materials providing a design, including accountability, for how students will regularly engage in a volume of independent reading either in or outside of class. The majority of lessons require some independent readings of text followed by text-specific questions and tasks that reflect student accountability. Students are asked to annotate texts. Additionally, most homework assignments include independent readings and tasks that require students to produce evidence of reading and to keep an independent reading log.

Examples include, but are not limited to:

• Appendix D: Volume of Reading outlines independent reading: Students may select from these recommended titles that support the module content or themes. These texts and Volume of Reading Reflection Questions can be used as part of small-group instruction or as part of an independent and/or choice reading program.
• In Module 1, Lesson 3, teachers are to instruct students to reread the first three paragraphs independently and underline or highlight three words or phrases that most help them understand the main idea of the passage.
• In Module 3, Lesson 10, students are told that when finished, they should check their work. Then, students may begin independently reading Chapter 5 of The Boys’ War.