4th Grade - Gateway 2

The instructional materials for Grade 4 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 2, students study the topic of Extreme Settings. Students examine how people react to extreme environments. Students analyze what makes landscapes like mountains challenging, in order to answer the question: "How do humans survive against the odds?" Students read and discuss multiple texts to answer the questions, “How does the setting affect the characters or speakers in the text? What makes a mountainous environment extreme? How does setting influence character and plot development? How does a challenging setting or physical environment change a person?” Students read a novel, Hatchet, by Gary Paulsen, a short story, All Summer in a Day, by Ray Bradbury. Students also read scientific accounts titled, Mountains, by Seymour Simon and SAS Survival Handbook: The Ultimate Guide to Surviving Anywhere, by John “Lofty” Wiseman. Students then read poems such as Dust of Snow, by Robert Frost and Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening, by Robert Frost. Students examine images of architecture to build knowledge about the module topic.

• In Module 4, students study the topic of Myth Making. Students read and analyze myths from the ancient Greeks and Romans as well as Native American tribes, to learn the purpose and importance of these stories in their cultures. Students read Walk Two Moons, a beautiful tapestry of stories within stories to reveal a modern-day myth that captures a snapshot of our human experience. Students read to answer: "What can we learn from myths and stories?" Students read and discuss multiple texts to answer questions such as, “What are myths, and why do people create them? What do myths and stories from different cultures have in common? How are Sal’s and Phoebe’s stories connected in Walk Two Moons? and What does Sal learn in Walk Two Moons?” Students read texts such as a novel (literary)Walk Two Moons, by Sharon Creech, A drama (literary) Pushing Up the Sky: Native American Plays for Children, by Joseph Bruchac. Students also engage with a historical account (informational) Understanding Greek Myths, by Natalie Hyde and read multiple myths (literary) in Gifts from the Gods: Ancient Words & Wisdom from Greek & Roman Mythology, by Lise Lunge-Larsen. Students also examine paintings, graphics, sculptures, videos, photographs and read multiple myths and poems to determine what we can learn from myths and stories.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 4 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 12, groups work for five minutes to determine the two most important details about blood vessels and write them in their pages.
• In Lesson 29, students are asked, "How do the characters in Love That Dog show characteristics of a figurative great heart?”

Module 2:

• In Lesson 8, students are asked, “What words or phrases represent the speaker’s original mood?”
• In Lesson 15, students are asked, ““Why are captions an important feature in an informational text?”

Module 3:

• In Lesson 7, students are asked, “What is the central message of the texts and artwork about the Boston Massacre?”
• In Lesson 26, students write a statement that sums up Abner’s perspective on the war on an index card and then travel the room with partners to record key ideas on their cards.

Module 4:

• In Lesson 11, students are asked, “How will the ideas in our evidence organizer fit in this structure of the Painted Essay?”
• In Lesson 20, students are asked, “What do you notice about these three messages, or sayings? How are they alike, and how are they different? Where do you notice literal ideas, and where do you notice figurative, or abstract ideas?”

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 4 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. Students also complete 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 2, students study the focus question, “How does the setting affect the characters or speakers in the text?” Students then analyze both single and multiple texts by answer Content Framing and Craft questions. Students read the text All Summer in a Day, by Ray Bradbury and answer, “What does a deeper exploration of the setting reveal in All Summer in a Day?” Students also read the texts, Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening, by Robert Frost, All Summer in a Day, by Ray Bradbury, and Dust of Snow, by Robert Frost to answer questions such as, “How do 'All Summer in a Day,' 'Dust of Snow,' and 'Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening' build my knowledge of narrative writing?”

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 essay to explain two themes that myths and stories can teach us. Write your essay for new Grade 4 students who want to know more about what they will learn in this module. Use evidence from two informational texts to describe the ancient Greeks and Native American tribes: Understanding Greek Myths and Introductions in Pushing Up the Sky. Use evidence from two literary texts to provide examples that help you explain what we can learn from myths and stories: Pushing Up the Sky, Walk Two Moons, When Raven Soared, Legend of the Moccasin Flower, and The Sun, Moon, and Stars."

The instructional materials for Grade 4 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, ”Imagine you are lost on a mountain, and write a narrative story about your survival. Follow the steps in the acronym ESCAPE to plan out your story. Include specific sensory details, descriptive snapshots, and thought shots to help your story come alive for the reader. Bring your story to a natural conclusion that makes sense for the reader. Your audience is a group of your peers who are knowledgeable about wilderness settings and survival techniques. Your purpose for writing is to create an engaging story that captures the imagination and interest of your peers and demonstrates what you have learned about extreme settings and how they affect you.” To prepare for this, students answer questions and complete tasks such as:

• Imagine you are Margot or one of the other characters in “All Summer in a Day.” Write a narrative thought shot describing what you think and feel related to a certain setting in the story. Describe the setting using sensory detail so peers who read it will be able to visualize the setting and how you react to it.
• Create a visual display (poster, booklet, video, or multimedia presentation) to teach hikers about a mountainous environment and what makes it extreme. Use text features like headings, subheadings, diagrams, illustrations, and captions to help readers understand the information better.
• Working in small groups, students create a short skit that explores Brian’s decision about whether to help the government learn from his ordeal. Display the two options that will “establish” the context for their skit:
  • Brian talking with his mother and father about this request from the government and his final decision.
  • A TV interview with Brian recapping his first trip and his decision to go back into the wilderness.
  • Students’ skits should demonstrate their understanding of the Focusing Question and their mastery of new vocabulary words from the module. Students will evaluate each other on how well their skit shows how Brian was changed by his experience in the wilderness and what he learned that was of value to others in similar situations. Each group will receive a section of the SAS Survival Handbook that illustrates an important piece of knowledge learned by Brian that they will need to include in their skits.
• Participate in a Socratic Seminar: Discuss the behavior of the children in All Summer in a Day. How did the characters respond to the different settings in the story? What would you have done in their situation and why? What is the theme of the story?
• Participate in a Socratic Seminar: Present learning about the best ways to survive alone in the woods using information learned from the SAS Survival Handbook, Mountains, and Hatchet. The presentation will be in the form of a skit with students acting as Brian from Hatchet. Refer to specific text evidence to support your points.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 4 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 3, Explain that you’ll use a vocabulary Frayer Model to better understand the definition of greathearted. Distribute Handout 3A: Greathearted Frayer Model.
• In Module 2, Lesson 26, Instruct students to Think-Pair-Share, and ask: “What are the suffixes in the two words you defined? Hint: one word has two.” Have students highlight the three suffixes in three different colors and build the meaning of the words. Have students share out.
• In Module 3, Lesson 9, Deep Dive: Vocabulary, students Think-Pair-Share: “What do you think the word diversity means in this sentence?” Allow students to think through the contextual clues of the text with different people on each page.
• In Module 4, Lesson 13, Deep Dive: Vocabulary, Display and discuss: Gratia – Latin root meaning favor, esteem, regard; pleasing quality, good will, gratitude. Also the Latin name of the three goddesses called the Graces in Greek mythology.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 4 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 14, students examine an introduction by discussing the craft question, “Why is a well-crafted introduction important?” and going back into the text, The Circulatory Story to use as a mentor text.
• In Module 2, Lesson 18, students experiment with setting and plot by discussing, “How has the setting influenced the plot of Hatchet so far?”. Students create a class list on chart paper of ideas and then jot ideas in their Response Journals to be used when writing their own stories.
• In Module 3, Lesson 25, student express understanding by answering the Execute Craft Question, “How do I use knowledge to support my opinion?” Once students have practiced forming sentences, students work independently to write a paragraph to respond to the prompt, “What is the most important knowledge Samuel has that can help him find his parents?”.
• In Module 4, Lesson 35, student Excel with a writing checklist by using their completed first draft of the End-of-Module essay to revise their own writings and then receive feedback from a peer.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 4 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 2, Lesson 28, students students review the graffiti wall to answer the research question they posed in Lesson 17: “What was it like to come to America through Ellis Island?”
• In Module 3, the End-of-Module task is a sustained research project. Students write an opinion essay to explain their views on whether or not the patriots were justified in fighting for independence from Britain. Students will base their reasons in textual evidence drawn from the books they read throughout the module.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 4 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 14, teachers are to have students independently read page 22 of The Circulatory Story and record the three most important details next to the bullets, then consider the details and text features to complete the box for the main idea.
• In Module 3, Lesson 13, students read the article independently and then use the text to help them answer questions on the assessment. Remind students to use complete, detailed sentences in any extended, written responses.