2nd Grade - Gateway 2

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 2 meet the criteria that texts are organized around a topic/topics to build students knowledge and vocabulary which will over time support and help grow students’ ability to comprehend complex texts independently and proficiently.

The curriculum has four modules that are all organized around specific science or social studies topics. The first and last module are about science and the middle two modules focus on a social studies topic. Module 1 is about seasons that change, Module 2 is about the American West, Module 3 is about Civil Rights heroes, and Module 4 is about good eating.  Within each module, there are guiding essential questions that break the big topics into more focused topics. 

In Module 1, students read several literary and informational texts to help think about change. Students learn about weather, seasons, and animals that change for specific reasons. Topics and texts include:

• In Lessons 1-3, students hear several poems, including “Weather” by Eve Merriam and "Autumn Landscape” by Maurice de Vlaminck, and discuss what changes in weather.

• In Lessons 4-9, students hear How Do You Know It’s Fall by Lisa M. Herrington to think about changes in fall weather that impact people and nature.

• In Lessons 10-14, students hear The Little Yellow Leaf by Carin Berger to help answer the question how does the little yellow leaf change.

• In Lessons 15-19, students discuss how a chameleon changes by listening to A Color of His Own by Leo Lionni.

• In Lessons 20-24, students hear Why Do Leaves Change Color by Betsy Maestro and discuss how weather impacts leaves in the fall.

• In Lessons 26-29, students hear Sky Tree by Thomas Locker to explore how the Sky Tree shows the cycle of seasons

In Module 2, students read several literary and informational texts to help think about the American West. Students learn about different Native American tribes, life on the American prairie, and read tall tales from the American West. Topics and texts include:

• In Lessons 1-5, students hear several texts, including The Buffalo Are Back by Jean Craighead George, to learn how the actions of American Indians and early settlers impacted the prairie in the American West. 

• In Lesson 6-10, students hear Plains Indians by Andrew Santella and focus on what life was like for Plains Indians in the early American West.

• In Lessons 11-15, students hear Journey of a Pioneer by Patricia J. Murphy and think about what life was like for pioneers in the early American West.

• In Lessons 16-19, students read the legend, The Legend of the Bluebonnet by Tomie dePaola, and think about the life lessons they can learn from the story. 

• In Lessons 20-25, students read The Story of Johnny Appleseed by Aliki and discuss the life lessons they can learn from the text.

• In Lessons 26-32, students hear several John Henry stories including John Henry: An American Legend by Ezra Jack Keats and discuss how different authors tell the story of John Henry’s life. 

In Module 3, students read several literary and informational texts around the Civil Rights Movement. Students begin by learning about life before the Civil Rights and then learn about people from the Civil Rights era, including Martin Luther King Jr. and Ruby Bridges. Topics and texts include:

• In Lessons 1-6, students hear several texts, including Martin Luther King Jr., and the March on Washington by Frances E. Ruffin, to discuss some of the injustices people faced before the Civil Rights Acts of 1964. 

• In Lessons 7-13, students learn about Martin Luther King Jr. and his dream for the world and hear several texts, including King's "I Have Dream" speech.

• In Lessons 14-23, students learn how Ruby Bridges responded to injustice and hear several texts, including Ruby Bridges Goes to School: My True Story by Ruby Bridges and The Story of Ruby Bridges by Robert Coles.

• In Lessons 24-29, students learn about Sylvia Mendez by listening to texts, such as Separate is Never Equal: Sylvia Mendez and her Family’s Fight for Desegregation by Duncan Tonatiuh. 

In Module 4, students read literary and informational texts about good eating. Students learn all about the importance of healthy food and how to get it. Topics and texts include:

• In Lessons  1-8, students read many texts to learn how food nourishes their body including The Digestive System by Jennifer Prior and The Digestive System by Christine Taylor Butler.

• In Lessons 9-16, students hear several texts to learn how food can nourish a community including Bone Button Borscht by Aubrey Davis and Stone Soup by Marcia Brown. 

• In Lessons 17-21, students learn where nourishing food comes from by reading texts, such as The Vegetables We Eat by Gail Gibbons.

• In Lessons 22-27, students learn how they can choose nourishing foods by reading many texts, including Good Enough to Eat by Lizzy Rockwell

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 2 meet the criteria that materials contain sets of coherently sequenced questions and tasks that require students to analyze the language (words/phrases), key ideas, details, craft, and structure of individual texts in order to make meaning and build understanding of texts and topics.

Throughout the program, students answer a variety of coherently sequenced questions and tasks. The questions help students engage with and analyze complex texts they hear throughout the year. Questions involving vocabulary require students to analyze the language within the read aloud. Student compare and contrast different texts within each module to examine structure and analyze pictures to discuss craft. 

Examples of questions that require students to analyze language include:

• In Module 1, Lesson 2, after hearing the poem, “Weather” by Eve Merriam, the teacher rereads lines 1-4 and asks the students what the rain sounds like at this point. Then the teacher rereads lines 5-6 and asks the students what the rain sounds like at this point in the poem. 

• In Module 2, Lesson 28, after reading John Henry by Julius Lester, students are asked why the author used sound words on page 2. 

• In Module 3, Lesson 20, after reading The Story of Ruby Bridges by Robert Coles, students are asked what is the difference between the words angry, irritated, and furious and why the author chose the adjective irritated and not furious or angry.

• In Module 4, Lesson 3, after reading The Digestive System by Christine Taylor-Butler, students are asked why the liquid is called gastric juice and why the heading is called ‘Don’t Drink the Juice’. 

Examples of questions that require students to analyze key ideas include:

• In Module 1, Lesson 11, after hearing The Little Yellow Leaf by Carin Berger, students are asked what is happening when the narrator says that “neither spoke” and why that is an important moment in the story. 

• In Module 2, Lesson 22,  students are asked what lesson they can learn from the key details in The Story of Johnny Appleseed by Aliki. 

• In Module 3, Lesson 6, after reading Martin Luther King Jr. and the March on Washington by Frances E. Ruffin, students are asked what Martin Luther King Jr. did to respond to injustices in his world and what impact he had on the country. 

• In Module 4, Lesson 5, students hear The Digestive System by Jennifer Prior and then are asked what happens when food enters the mouth and esophagus and how it changes when it leaves. 

Examples of questions that require students to analyze details include:

• In Module 1, Lesson 6, after hearing How Do You Know It’s Fall by Lisa M. Herrington, students are asked what the details on page 21-25 tell them. 

• In Module 2, Lesson 3, students hear The Buffalo are Back by Jean Craighead George and are asked how the settlers are linked the buffalo and how they buffalo are linked to the grass. 

• In Module 3, Lesson 27, students hear Separate is Never Equal: Sylvia Mendez and her Family’s Fight for Desegregation by Duncan Tonatiuh, and are asked what Sylvia’s mother wants her to understand when she says, "Don’t you know that is why we fought?" 

• In Module 4, Lesson 12, students hear Bone Button Borscht by Aubrey Davis and are asked what details they notice about the beggar and what that reveals about his character. 

Examples of questions that require student to analyze craft include:

• In Module 1, Lesson 26, students are asked if Sky Tree by Thomas Locker is an informational text or a literary text and how they know. 

• In Module 2, Lesson 7, students are asked how they can use the text features in Plains Indians by Andrew Santella to better understand it. 

• In Module 3, Lesson 7, students listen to Martin Luther King, Jr's speech, I Have a Dream, and are asked what they notice about how this speech sounds when King reads it to the crowd. 

• In Module 4, Lesson 14, students are asked what is the real, essential meaning of the story, Bone Button Borscht by Aubrey Davis, and are asked to explain how the words and pictures work together to provide evidence for the essential meaning. 

Examples of questions that require students to analyze structure include:

• In Module 1, Lesson 16, after hearing A Color of His Own by Leo Lionni, students are asked to describe the setting at the beginning of the story, the end of the story, and how it changes. 

• In Module 2, Lesson 13, students are asked how Journey of a Pioneer by Patricia J. Murphy is both a story and an informational text. 

• In Module 3, Lesson, 16, students are asked how the point of view in Ruby Bridges Goes to School is similar to the point of view in "I Have a Dream". 

• In Module 4, Lesson 18, students hear The Vegetables We Eat by Gail Gibbons, students are asked why the author put the sections in the specific order in the text.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 2 meet the criteria 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.

Throughout the program, students are asked a set of text-dependent questions and tasks that require them to analyze the integration of knowledge and ideas across both individual and multiple texts. Throughout the four modules, the students learn about seasons, the American West, the Civil Rights Movement, and good eating habits. Students are asked questions in individual texts and across multiple texts in order to integrate the knowledge that they have learned. 

Examples of such questions include:

• In Module 1, Lesson 4, after hearing How Do You Know It's Fall by Lisa M. Herrington,  students are asked what did they learn about fall from this text. 

• In Module 1, Lesson 10, students think about the signs of fall in How Do You Know It’s Fall by Lisa M. Harrington and The Little Yellow Leaf by Carin Berger. Then students ask if they get the same type of information from both texts. 

• In Module 2, Lesson 7, students are asked how eastern Plains Indians live differently from western Plains Indians. 

• In Module 3, Lesson 16, students discuss how the point of view in Martin Luther King, Jr’s I Have a Dream speech is similar to the point of view in Ruby Bridges Goes to School. 

• In Module 3, Lesson 27, after hearing Separate is Never Equal: Sylvia Mendez and Her Family’s Fight for Desegregation by Duncan Tonatiuh, students are asked why the story is organized by showing the first day of the new school before explaining that the Mendez family fought for desegregation. 

• In Module 4, Lesson 4, after hearing The Digestive System by Jennifer Prior, students are asked what is a digestive tract. They are also told that the digestive tract is compared with a long, winding tube and then asked how that comparison helps them understand the diagram on page 12.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 2 meet the criteria that the 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, listening).

In each module, there are several focusing question tasks that scaffold the materials to aid in the successful completion of the End-of-Module (EOM) Task. The focus tasks come at the end of each topic in the module. The materials contain sets of high-quality sequences of text-dependent questions and activities that build to each culminating task. Many of the specific tasks are focused on a piece of writing but are about the text that they listened to the teacher read aloud, which provides learning through integrated skills. Students also rehearse the writing with a partner before writing. 

Examples of the Focus Question Tasks and the EOM Tasks include:

• In Module 1, Lesson 13, students complete Focus Questioning Task 1 which asks students how the Little Yellow Leaf changes. Before writing, students work with a partner and use the Change Chart, which was created throughout the lessons, to select evidence for their paragraphs. Then students compose a verbal paragraph before independently writing their paragraph. The EOM Task requires students to write a paragraph about how changes in weather impact plants or animals in fall. Students select evidence from two texts in order to complete this task. The Focus Questioning Task supports students in completing this task. 

• In Module 2, Lesson 9, students complete Focusing Question Task 2 where they write a paragraph explaining how plants or animals were important in Plains Indians’ lives. Students work with paragraphs to practice the paragraph before writing it. In the EOM Task, students write how one legendary person was different from real-life pioneers. Before beginning, students engage in a practice writing task. The teacher asks the students what are the similarities between The Legend of the Bluebonnet and The Buffalo Are Back. Then students write how The Legend of the Bluebonnet is different from real-life America West, like the one described in The Buffalo Are Back. On the following day, students write how either John Henry or Johnny Appleseed were different from real-life pioneers.

• In Module 3, Lesson 27, after reading Separate is Never Equal: Sylvia Mendez and her Family’s Fight for Desegregation by Duncan Tonatiuh, students complete Focusing Question Task 5, where they write an exploded moment narrative from the point of view of Sylvia Mendez in the courtroom scene. Then for the EOM Task, students write a narrative about an exploded moment from one of the module texts. Students can either write about Ruby Bridges or Sylvia Mendez. In order to prepare, students complete a graphic organizer for both famous women. 

• In Module 4, Lesson 19, students complete Focusing Question Task 3 where they write an informative paragraph about how food is created on a big farm. As a class, the students identify the steps in the process as the teacher rereads pages 26-27 in The Vegetables We Eat by Gail Gibbons. Then for the EOM Task, students are given two pictures of plates and have to pick which meal would nourish their body and why using evidence from Good Enough to Eat. Students work together to brainstorm and answer questions such as what vitamin or mineral is in a peanut and how does that help the body stay healthy. This integrates reading, writing, speaking, and listening. 

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 2 meet the criteria 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 include a year-long vocabulary plan. Vocabulary words are taught both implicitly and explicitly, using words from the texts read aloud. Vocabulary instruction includes a focus on multiple meanings, shades of meaning, concept maps, and morphology. Vocabulary Routines are found in the Resources section of the Implementation Guide and include routines such as Frayer Model, Morpheme Matrix, Outside-In, Relationship Mapping, and Word Line. Teachers also use Word Walls and Vocabulary Journals for students to record newly-acquired words and vocabulary strategies Appendix B includes additional vocabulary support. It explains that vocabulary instructional strategies are explicitly introduced and practiced throughout the program. The appendix also includes a Module Word List and a list of words that would pose a challenge to student comprehension. Vocabulary is assessed through questions in the module assessments. 

Examples of explicit vocabulary instruction throughout the program include: 

• In Module 1, Lesson 11, after hearing The Little Yellow Leaf by Carin Berger, students explore the word soared and then the teacher explains that the author uses many interesting verbs to describe the actions of the wind, the leaves, and other things in nature. Students then work in pairs to browse the text to find verbs that describe how things move. Students post the words and then each pair selects one word and uses a dictionary to look up the word. The pairs then create an action that shows the action of the verb. Once pairs have their action, they form groups of four and the pairs take turns performing their action. 

• In Module 2, Lesson 9, students are told that a lifestyle is the way someone lives. The teacher then reads a paragraph on page 17 of Plains Indians by Andrew Santella and tells the students they need to find out the meaning of nomadic. The teacher shows them how to use the glossary and writes the definition on the board. Students then go back to page 17 and pairs work together to think about if horses make nomadic life easier. Students then add the word to their Vocabulary Journals before stopping and jotting what three ways they could find out more about the words nomad and nomadic. 

• In Module 3, Lesson 20, the teacher reads aloud page 25 of The Story of Ruby Bridges by Robert Coles and asks students what they notice about the word irritated. Then the teacher posts sentences with the words angry, irritated and furious and asks students what is different about these words and why the author chose the adjective irritated and not furious or angry. Students are then given a Shades of Meaning worksheet, where they order words from least strong to strongest. 

• In Module 4, Lesson 29, students review content words from the unit by playing the game, Link Up. In this game, students pair words and explain their connection. Pairs work together to figure out how the different words are connected and then they share. This game can be played several times, but pairs need to find different pairs each time. At the end of the lesson, students write a sentence with two linked words and then share with the class. 

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 2 meet the criteria 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.

Throughout the materials, students engage in writing lessons almost daily that support them in building and communicating substantive understanding of topics and texts. Students engage in different forms of writing. Besides writing projects, students participate in Stop and Jot, which allows them to respond to texts in the moment. Students spend roughly 20 or more minutes of writing per lesson.

Throughout the program, students follow a protocol for the different genres of writing. Students begin the year with informative writing, then narrative writing, before opinion writing. For informative writing, students learn to introduce their reader to the topic, state their idea about the topic, supply evidence that develops the topic and explains how that evidence develops the topic before reinforcing the essential idea in a conclusion. For narrative writing, students are taught to include characters, setting, problem, events, and a resolution. For opinion writing, students introduce their reader to the topic, state their opinion on the topic and the reasons for it, as well as citing evidence for the reason, before reinforcing their opinion in a conclusion. Writing rubrics are included in the Implementation Guide that are unique to Grade 2. 

Specific examples of writing tasks and how they build over the year include:

• In Module 1, Lesson 5, students learn how to write topic statements. The teacher posts a model sentence and asks students what they notice. Students then practice writing topic statements for paragraphs as a whole class before writing independently. 

• In Module 2, Lesson 12, students examine clearly explained details. Students hear some paragraphs and are asked how to improve the paragraphs. Then students are asked how key details relate to the topic statement. Then, in Lesson 13, students practice revising their sentences to make sure they clearly explain the details in their writing. When they finish, they share with a partner. 

• In Module 3, Lesson 21, students learn how to plan an exploded moment in writing. Students write an exploded moment narrative from the point of view of Ruby Bridges as she stops in the crowd walking into the school. Students use a SCAPEplanner to identify the setting, character, action, problem, and ending and then identify what Ruby Bridges might feel in this situation. Students orally rehearse their exploded moment narrative before writing. 

• In Module 4, Lesson 23, student learn how to research from multiple sources for opinion pieces. Students work collectively with their class to collect evidence and add it to the Evidence Organizer. The teacher reads aloud several different sections of Good Enough to Eat and students take notes to collect evidence. In future lessons, students collect additional evidence about four more foods before beginning their opinion piece. 

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 2 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.

Throughout the program, students are given ample opportunities to help them develop their research skills by engaging in shared research projects. Beginning in Module 2, there is a research component included in each module that provides students with lifelong research skills. Students learn about answering research questions, gathering information from more than one source, using graphic organizers to organize the information, and using research to write an opinion piece. 

Specific examples of research lessons and tasks include:

• In Module 2, Lesson 23, students read “Who Was Johnny Appleseed?” by Scholastic News and focus on answering the research question, "What is true about the real John Chapman?" The teacher, along with the students, reads aloud the passage and then students work in partners to answer the question. They write it on the sticky note and post it on the Research Chart. Then students add one fact that they researched to their Focusing Question Task book. 

• In Module 3, Lesson 3, students work in small groups to brainstorm different sources they could use to resource the Civil Rights. Then beginning in Lesson 4, students collect evidence using a graphic organizer. Then in Lesson 11, students write an informative paragraph using two sources. 

• In Module 4, Lesson 22, students begin to complete the Focusing Question Task 4 where they conduct research in small groups to form opinions about healthy foods. In these groups, students collect evidence from multiple sources over the course of multiple days before writing their research paragraph.