Kindergarten - Gateway 1

The instructional materials reviewed for Kindergarten partially meet expectations that they are designed to elicit direct, observable evidence of the three-dimensional learning in the instructional materials.

Materials consistently provide three-dimensional learning objectives for each unit and include a table that provides the elements of the three dimensions that constitute the learning objectives for the unit. Each unit includes a post-assessment with five to six questions on the unit content. Additional summative assessments are taken from student work produced during individual lessons. These are typically student responses in their journals, but also include additional activities, such as a student-created book. In several instances, the materials cite whole class discussions or group activities as summative assessments, but those miss the opportunity to provide teachers with information on what each individual student is able to accomplish independently. While each unit includes a table that identifies the summative assessments, it is often difficult to distinguish what is an instructional activity, what is an assessment, and which assessments are formative vs. summative. 

Overall, the materials miss the opportunity to assess many of the elements associated with the learning goals, and in two of the units (Weather and Climate and Plants and Animals Live Here) the majority of the elements in the three-dimensional learning objectives are not assessed. Additionally, many summative assessment tasks do not connect to the targeted three-dimensional learning objectives and do not assess any of the targeted objectives.

Examples where the materials provide three-dimensional learning objectives for the learning sequence, but summative tasks do not measure student achievement of all of the targeted three-dimensional learning objectives:

• In Kindergarten, Motion: Pushes and Pulls, the three-dimensional learning objective comprises 10 elements. Summative assessments include a unit Post Assessment and various work products collected during instruction, primarily journal entries. The Post Assessment has five questions that have students show the motion of a soccer ball that was kicked using arrows, write an explanation for why the ball moved, draw how they could change the motion of the soccer ball, and write what they think changed the motion of the soccer ball (DCI-PS2.A-P1, DCI- PS2.A-P2, and DCI-PS2.B-P1). Students also make a claim about the force applied to two balls, and whether it was greater on the larger ball or the ball that traveled further (DCI-PS2.A-P1). Other assessments in the unit address additional elements of the learning objectives. For example, in Activity 6, Lesson 6b, students use their journal to write a question about motion that they would like to know more about and then draw and label a plan to investigate their question (DCI-PS2.A-P1, DCI-PS2.A-P2, DCI-PS3.C-P1, and CCC-CE-P2). In Activity 6, Lesson 6C, students complete a Respond to Text assessment. Students draw and write about how the children in the trade book, Move It! Motion, Forces, and You, move a soccer ball, then draw and write about a time when they used a force to start, stop, or change the motion of an object (DCI-PS2.A-P2, CCC-CE-P2). Across all of the assessments, the materials miss the opportunity to assess CCC-PAT-P1.

• In Kindergarten, Weather and Climate, the three-dimensional learning objective comprises 12 elements. Summative assessments include a unit Post Assessment and various work products collected during instruction, primarily journal entries. In the Post Assessment, students select the best instrument to measure rainfall, which thermometer shows the warmest weather, which picture shows a tree in the winter time (CCC-PAT-P1), the best place to go if a tornado warning is heard (DCI-ESS3.B-P1), and which picture of a flag shows a calm day (CCC-PAT-P1). Students also make a prediction about the weather using temperature data and observations (DCI-ESS2.D-P1, SEP-DATA-P3, CCC-CE-P2, and CCC-PAT-P1). Other assessments in the unit address additional elements of the learning objectives. In Activity 3, Lesson 3B, students create a windsock. In the assessed work, students draw and label how their team made a wind sock (SEP-CEDS-P2), how it recorded data, and the wind speed and direction they observed (DCI-ESS2.D-P1). In Activity 7, Lesson 7B, students gather information about each season from books (SEP-DATA-P3, SEP-INFO-P1) and create their own book that describes the seasons using an image of a tree (SEP-CEDS-P1, CCC-PAT-P1), temperature, cloud cover, precipitation, and wind (DCI-ESS2.D-P1) and what animals and people typically do during each season. Across the assessments, there is a missed opportunity to assess DCI-PS3.B-P1, DCI-ETS1.A-P2, SEP-INV-P4, SEP-CEDS-P2, and SEP-AQDP-P1.

• In Kindergarten, Plants and Animals Live Here, the three-dimensional learning objective comprises 12 elements. Summative assessments include a unit Post Assessment and various work products collected during instruction, primarily journal entries. In the Post Assessment, students identify living and nonliving things, match organisms with their habitat, identify the needs of living things, and identify why a woodpecker changed its habitat (DCI-LS1.C-P1, DCI-ESS3.A-P1, and DCI-ESS2.E-P1). Other assessments in the unit address additional elements of the learning objectives. In Activity 3, Lesson 3C, students make a model of an earthworm habitat based on their observations, including what it eats and other organisms that may live there (DCI-ESS2.E-P1, SEP-MOD-P3, and SEP-DATA-P3). Across the assessments, there is a missed opportunity to assess DCI-ESS3.C-P1, DCI-ETS1.B-P1, SEP-ARG-P6, SEP-INFO-P4, CCC-PAT-P1, CCC-CE-P2, and CCC-SYS-P2.

The instructional materials reviewed for Kindergarten partially meet expectations that phenomena and/or problems drive individual lessons or activities using key elements of all three dimensions.

The materials are broken out into three units: Weather and Climate, Plants and Animals Live Here, and Motion: Pushes and Pulls. Each unit focuses on a different content area: life science, physical science, and earth and space science. Each unit is broken into five to seven Activities, then each Activity is further broken down into two to five Lessons. 

The materials provide multiple lessons that use phenomena or design challenges to drive student learning and engage with all three dimensions. When a phenomenon or problem drives the lesson, students consistently engage with the three dimensions as they develop explanations or solutions. In instances where there is a phenomenon present but does not drive learning, the phenomenon is only addressed at the beginning and, sometimes, the end of the lesson, and there is a missed opportunity for activities in the lesson to be directly connected to explaining the phenomenon or solving the problem. When a phenomenon or design challenge does not drive learning or is not present, the lessons are typically driven by a science concept or disciplinary core idea, and a few are driven by an activity.

Phenomena and design challenges are presented in several ways. There are unit-level problems and design challenges that span multiple activities and lessons within a unit, there are activity-level phenomena and design challenges that span a few lessons within an activity, and there are phenomena that are present at only the lesson level.

Examples where phenomena or problems drive student learning and engage students with all three dimensions:

• In Kindergarten, Weather and Climate, Activity 2, Lesson 2C: Hiding from the Sun, the design challenge driving learning is to build a house to protect a model of an animal from the sun. In this lesson, students read a nonfiction children's trade book, Beneath the Sun, that provides examples of how different animals from various habitats find shelter from the sun (SEP-INFO-P4). Students then relate their understanding of how animals hide when the sun heats the earth’s surface (CCC-CE-P2, DCI-PS3.B-P1) to help them develop a solution to the design challenge. Students plan, sketch, construct, test, adjust, and compare their designs of a structure that blocks the sun’s rays from reaching a model of an animal they constructed out of UV coloring-changing beads (DCI-ETS1.B-P1, DCI-ETS1.C-P1, SEP-CEDS-P2, and SEP-DATA-P5) and discuss evidence that supports a claim that their shelter is effective at protecting the model animal from the sun (SEP-ARG-P7). Through further discussions, the students relate how blocking of the sun’s rays results in blocking the sun’s heat (DCI-ESS2.D-P1, CCC-CE-P2).

• In Kindergarten, Weather and Climate, Activity 3, Lesson 3A: Blowing in the Wind, the phenomenon driving learning is that various objects move when the wind is blowing. In this lesson, students observe the phenomenon through a read-aloud by the teacher of the fictional children’s trade book The Wind Blew about a wind that picks up various objects from people and blows them away. Students then record first-hand observations of the wind in the schoolyard by drawing and labeling pictures (SEP-DATA-P1, DCI-ESS2.C-P1). Students also discuss how observing the wind blowing objects allows them to infer the presence, direction, and strength of the wind (CCC-CE-P2, CCC-SPQ-P1, and SEP-CEDS-P1). 

• In Kindergarten, Plants and Animals Live Here, Activity 3, Lesson 3C: Inviting the Worm into the Classroom Habitat, the phenomenon driving learning is that earthworms live in soil. Students read the trade book Wonderful Worms (SEP-INFO-P1) and identify where worms live and how their habitat provides for their needs (DCI-LS1.C-P1). Students write about habitats where they have observed worms and how that habitat provides for the needs of worms (SEP-INFO-P4), looking for similarities and patterns in their observations (CCC-PAT-P1). Finally, students examine the classroom earthworm habitat and decide if it has everything that worms need to survive.

• In Kindergarten, Motion: Pushes and Pulls, Activity 2, Lesson 2A: Collisions: Moving/Not Moving-Understanding the Problem, the phenomenon driving learning is that the motion of a ball changes after a collision. Students observe a ball bumping into a stationary classroom object such as a wall (DCI-PS2.B-P1). Then, they share their own experiences with objects bumping into each other and what happened to the motion of the objects afterwards. Students work in small groups to investigate what happens when a moving ball bumps into a stationary ball (SEP-INV-P2, SEP-DATA-P1). They share their observations with the class and record their results on a whole class chart. Students use the chart to discuss patterns in their results and come to the conclusion that when a ball that is moving collides with a stationary ball, the motion of both balls change (SEP-DATA-E3, CCC-PAT-P1, and CCC-CE-P1).

Examples where phenomena or problems do not drive student learning:

• In Kindergarten, Plants and Animals Live Here, Activity 4, Lesson 4B: Are Plants Living?, the phenomenon that six pumpkins are growing in a ditch by the side of a road does not drive learning, instead the lesson focuses on the disciplinary core idea that plants need water and sunlight to survive. Students collect information about why plants move and the life cycle of plants by reading the trade books Plants Can’t Sit Still and Seed to Plant. Students engage in a Science Talk and compare and contrast what plants need to survive with what animals need to survive. There is a missed opportunity to use the phenomenon to drive student learning in the lesson..

• In Kindergarten, Weather and Climate, Activity 1, Lesson 1A: Weather Watchers: Making Observations, a phenomenon or problem does not drive learning. Instead, the lesson focuses on the disciplinary core idea that weather is a combination of sunlight, wind, snow, and rain and that people describe these conditions to notice patterns over time. Students read the fictional children’s trade book Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs about a fictitious town where food falls from the sky. Students question if food really falls from clouds, look for patterns in the “weather” presented in the book, and make weather observations in the schoolyard.

• In Kindergarten, Motion: Pushes and Pulls, Activity 1, Lesson 1B: Balls in Motion-Understanding the Problem, a phenomenon or problem does not drive learning. Instead, the disciplinary core idea that an object’s motion is affected by the strength and direction of a push or a pull focuses the learning. Students explore and investigate the motion of balls, discuss their observations, and come to a consensus on how pushes and pulls caused the balls to move and change direction. Students then record their observations of the ball they investigated and how they caused it to move.

The instructional materials reviewed for Kindergarten partially meet expectations that they intentionally elicit and leverage students’ prior knowledge and experiences related to phenomena or problems.

Students’ prior knowledge and experiences are consistently elicited across the grade; however, there are limited instances where prior knowledge and experiences are leveraged in instruction. 

In some instances, students are asked questions to recall information they learned in a previous lesson or are asked about the science topic and not the phenomenon/problem. In the instances where the materials do elicit students’ prior knowledge and experience, teachers elicit them through discussion and often record student responses and track how their knowledge evolves over the course of the lesson. Student responses, however, are not typically leveraged or used later in the activity.

The two lessons that elicit and leverage students’ prior knowledge and experiences are both in the Motion: Pushes and Pulls unit. In both lessons, students are working to explain a phenomenon. There is a missed opportunity to leverage prior knowledge and experiences in lessons with a design challenge or a problem.

Examples where students’ prior knowledge and experiences of problems and/or phenomena are elicited and leveraged:

• In Kindergarten, Motion: Pushes and Pulls, Activity 2, Lesson 2A: Collisions: Moving/Not Moving - Understanding the Problem, the phenomenon is that the motion of a ball changes after a collision. Students are asked about their prior experiences with two objects bumping into each other or when the students themselves bumped into someone or something else. Students relate their classroom experience observing balls colliding to their prior experiences of objects bumping into each other or a moving object bumping into a stationary one. Students’ prior experiences are leveraged as they develop explanations about how objects move when the teacher encourages students to consider how their ideas have changed as they discuss the cause and effect relationship between the collisions and change in the balls’ motion.

• In Kindergarten, Motion: Pushes and Pulls, Activity 6, Lesson 6A: Motion on the Playground, the phenomenon is that a person on a swing moves back and forth if a push is provided. After observing a video of a child swinging and the forces that initiate that movement–a single push from a partner, repeated pushes from a partner, and the person swinging and pumping their legs–students share their prior experiences on a swing and how they made the swing move. After learning about types of motion (e.g. pushes, pulls), students think back to their experiences on a swing and use their new vocabulary to describe and explain those experiences.

Examples where students’ prior knowledge and experiences of problems and/or phenomena are elicited but not leveraged:

• In Kindergarten, Weather and Climate, Activity 3, Lesson 3A: Blowing in the Wind, the phenomenon is that various objects move when the wind is blowing. Students read a trade book about the wind blowing objects and are asked to relate their personal experiences with the wind blowing objects to the phenomenon of wind presented in the book. While this lesson elicits prior experience from the students, it misses the opportunity to support the teacher in leveraging what students bring to the lesson.

• In Kindergarten, Weather and Climate, Activity 2, Lesson 2C: Hiding from the Sun, the design challenge is to build a house to protect a model of an animal from the sun. Students read a trade book about how different animals survive the heat of the sun and are asked to relate their personal experiences with keeping cool when it’s hot out to the experiences of the animals in the book. While this lesson elicits prior experience from students, it misses the opportunity to support the teacher in leveraging what students bring to the lesson. 

• In Kindergarten, Plants and Animals Live Here, Activity 2, Lesson 2A: Pill Bugs, the phenomenon is that pill bugs gather under old potato peels. Students listen to the story Grandpa and the Potato Peels from the Student Journal, a story about a character that leaves potato peels on the ground and discovers pill bugs underneath the potato peels the next day. After listening to the story, students share their prior experiences with pill bugs, including where they have seen them and what behaviors they observed. Then, students observe pill bugs and create a habitat for them using what they learned in classroom observations and informational texts. While this lesson elicits prior experience from students, it misses the opportunity to support the teacher in leveraging what students bring to the lesson. 

• In Kindergarten, Plants and Animals Live Here, Activity 3, Lesson 3C: Inviting the Worm into the Classroom Habitat, the phenomenon is that earthworms live in the soil. The teacher reads the book Wonderful Worms, an informational text about worms and their habitat, and students respond to the ideas and information in the text. The teacher asks students to “express ideas of what they already think about worms.” While this lesson elicits prior experience from students, it misses the opportunity to support the teacher in leveraging what students bring to the lesson.

• In Kindergarten, Motion: Pushes and Pulls, Activity 1, Lesson 1A: It's Not Junk! An Engineering Design Challenge–Understanding the Problem, the design challenge is to make a game in which a ball moves through a maze without the student touching it. After the design challenge is introduced, students share their prior knowledge and experiences with balls, mazes, and games. While this lesson elicits prior experience from students, it misses the opportunity to support the teacher in leveraging what students bring to the lesson.

Examples where students’ prior knowledge and experiences of problems and/or phenomena are not elicited and leveraged:

• In Kindergarten, Weather and Climate, Activity 3, Lesson 3B: Blowing in the Wind, the design challenge is to create a windsock to determine the speed and direction of the wind. Students observe how the wind blows a flag outside and are presented with the design challenge. There is a missed opportunity to elicit students’ prior knowledge and experience about how the wind blows objects, resulting in an inability to leverage what students bring to the lesson.

• In Kindergarten, Weather and Climate, Activity 5, Lesson 5B: Snowflakes, Hail, and Sleet!, the phenomenon is that snow melts when it gets warmer. While this lesson provides an opportunity for students to share prior experiences with different types of precipitation, the elicited experiences support science content rather than the presented phenomenon.

The instructional materials reviewed for Kindergarten partially meet expectations that they embed phenomena or problems across multiple lessons for students to use and build knowledge of all three dimensions.

In the instructional materials reviewed for Kindergarten, phenomena or problems drive learning across multiple learning opportunities, engage students in all three dimensions, and provide multimodal opportunities for students to develop, evaluate, and revise their thinking, but not consistently. In several cases, phenomena or problems are present across multiple sequences and students encounter the same phenomenon or problem at various times during the unit. In some of these learning sequences, student learning is driven by explaining, solving, or making sense of the phenomenon or problem. This, however, happens inconsistently. In other instances, learning sequences are connected to a phenomenon or problem, but there is a missed opportunity to use the phenomenon or problem to  drive learning. Instead, the phenomenon or problem is used as an introduction, but student learning is guided by a science concept or activity, not explaining, solving, or making sense of the phenomenon or problem across the lessons. In other cases, the phenomenon or problem only drives learning in individual lessons and there are missed opportunities to use the phenomenon or problem to drive student learning across the sequence as a whole.

When a phenomenon or problem does drive learning across a sequence, students consistently engage in all three dimensions as they work with the phenomenon or problem. Additionally, students typically have multiple opportunities to share and revise their thinking through drawing, writing, whole group discussion, and partner discussion.

Examples of phenomena that drive students’ learning and use the three dimensions across multiple lessons:

• In Kindergarten, Weather and Climate, Activities 6 and 7, the phenomenon that the weather that is typical for the current season drives learning. Across these activities, students engage in a series of lessons to develop an understanding of what type of weather is typical for an area during the current season. Students explore the different seasons and brainstorm how weather changes throughout the year (DCI-ESS2.D-E1, SEP-DATA-P3, CCC-PAT-P1, and DCI-ESS2.D-P1). Next, students identify the characteristics of each season and make observations about the current season in the schoolyard (SEP-INV-P4, SEP-DATA-P3). Students brainstorm the months, weather, holidays, recreational activities, severe weather, and animal behaviors that relate to the current season for their state and discuss the seasonality and characteristics of specific types of severe weather (DCI-ESS3.B-P1, DCI-ESS2.D-P1). Finally, students use their compiled information as evidence to make a claim about which seasons are most alike and most different (SEP-ARG-P6) and work with a partner to discuss their thoughts. Students return to the initial phenomenon repeatedly throughout the learning sequence. At the end of the activity, they further refine their thinking of what type of weather occurs during each season to make a book about the seasons (SEP-INFO-P4).

• In Kindergarten, Plants and Animals Live Here, Activity 4: Plants, the phenomenon that six pumpkins are growing in a ditch by the side of a road drives learning. Across this activity, students engage in a series of lessons to explain how the pumpkins unexpectedly grew in a ditch. Students explore a variety of seeds, sorting them by their external characteristics (CCC-PAT-P1), and discussing what seeds need to grow (DCI-LS2.A-P1). Next, students collect a variety of plant parts they find outside (DCI-LS1.A-P1, CCC-PAT-P1), read two trade books about how plants grow (DCI-LS1.C-P1, SEP-INFO-P1, and SEP-INFO-P4), and describe how these texts and their experiences change their understanding of the phenomenon. Finally, students look at picture cards of a variety of plants in different habitats (SEP-INFO-P1) and discuss how each plant is able to get what it needs to live and grow in each habitat (DCI-ESS3.A-P1, CCC-SYS-P2, and CCC-PAT-P1). Students return to the initial phenomenon repeatedly throughout the learning sequence, making connections between the lessons and the phenomenon of the pumpkins growing in the ditch. Across the lessons, students are explicitly directed to use their new understanding to revise and improve their explanation of the phenomenon (SEP-CEDS-E1).

• In Kindergarten, Motion: Pushes and Pulls, Activity 2: Collisions! Collisions!, the phenomenon that the motion of a ball changes after a collision drives learning. Across this activity, students engage in a series of lessons to describe the cause and effect relationship of collisions and how they change an object’s motion. First, students observe a moving ball colliding with a wall and then investigate a moving ball colliding with a stationary ball (DCI-PS2.B-P1). Students observe and record the results of their investigation (SEP-INV-P2, SEP-DATA-P1), then share the results with the class (CCC-PAT-P1). They discuss how their investigation helps them understand the initial phenomenon (CCC-CE-P1). Next, students investigate the results of two moving balls of the same size and weight colliding (DCI-PS2.B-P1, DCI-PS2.A-E2, and SEP-INV-P2). They observe and record the results of their investigation (SEP-DATA-P3, SEP-DATA-P4), then share the results with the class (CCC-PAT-P1). They discuss how their investigation helps them understand the initial phenomenon (SEP-CEDS-P1, CCC-CE-P1). Finally, students predict and investigate the results of two balls colliding when the balls are of a different size and weight (DCI-PS2.B-P1, SEP-INV-P3, SEP-DATA-E3, and SEP-MOD-P3). They discuss how the results of the investigation help them explain the initial phenomenon and will help them solve the design challenge for the unit (SEP-CEDS-P1, CCC-CE-P1)–to create a maze for a ball to move through. Students return to the initial phenomenon repeatedly throughout the learning sequence. They use their understanding of the phenomenon to predict the outcome of the investigations and they use the results of the investigations to revise their explanation of the phenomenon. These discussions occur orally and are recorded on the class chart as well as in the student journals.

Examples where phenomena or problems do not drive students’ learning across multiple lessons:

• In Kindergarten, Weather and Climate, Activity 1: Weather Watchers Making Observations, a problem or phenomenon does not drive learning across multiple lessons. Instead, the sequence focuses on the disciplinary core idea that weather is the combination of sunlight, wind, snow, rain, and temperature in a particular region at a particular time and that people measure these conditions to describe and record the weather and to notice patterns over time. First, the teacher highlights the concept of observable weather patterns over time using the fictional trade book Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs about a fictional town where residents receive all of their meals through food-based weather, and students make weather observations based on their senses. Next, students explore the purpose and operation of a thermometer, wind sock, rain gauge, and directional signs, which they place in the schoolyard for use in weather observations over the course of the unit.

• In Kindergarten, Plants and Animals Live Here, Activity 5: Living Things Change the Place Where They Live, the phenomenon is that six organisms change their environment. The phenomenon does not drive learning across multiple lessons. The phenomenon is used as an introduction, but the six organisms are never returned to. Instead, the science concept that plants, animals, and humans change their environment in different ways is the focus of the learning. Students are introduced to the phenomenon through six picture cards which show how six different organisms change their environment. Students discuss their observations of the organisms and the changes they caused. Students discuss how humans change their environment and why. Students go outside and look for examples of organisms in the schoolyard that change the environment. Students finish the learning sequence by drawing a habitat and including ways different animals, plants, and people have changed the habitat and do not return to the six organisms from the beginning of the sequence.

• In Kindergarten, Motion: Pushes and Pulls, Activity 4: Where Is It? Where Is It Going?, the design challenge is to make a game in which a ball moves through a maze without a student touching it. The design challenge does not drive learning. Instead, the activity of observing motion and describing motion using position words is the focus of the learning sequence. Students practice using position words such as above and below to describe the location of objects in a picture. Students stand in different locations around the room and observe the motion of a toy car down a path. Students use position words from their location to describe the movement of the toy car. For example, “the car moved toward the wall” or “the car moved away from me.” The lessons end by asking students to connect the activity to the design challenge, but the activities do not support students to complete the challenge.