6th Grade - Gateway 2

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 6 meet the criteria that texts are organized around topics and/or themes to build students’ ability to read and comprehend complex texts independently and proficiently.

Each unit is organized around a topic and guiding question that help students to access the ideas in the texts. The topics are engaging, relatable, and grade-level appropriate. Students focus on a topic through connected texts, allowing them to build knowledge and vocabulary to comprehend complex texts independently and proficiently. The texts build on one another and share enough common ideas that the more complicated texts are comprehensible for students based on scaffolded knowledge. Each unit includes an overview that explains the topic and introduces the accompanying texts. Additionally, the Student Edition includes a Unit Introduction that provides background knowledge on the texts students will be reading.

Examples of how units and texts are organized around topics include, but are not limited to:

In Unit 1, the topic is Stories of Survival. The Essential Question is “How are people shaped by the challenges they face?” This topic is relatable to students, and, as the unit is introduced, students are asked to do a Think (Write)-Pair-Share: “Tell about a time when you faced a challenge or a fear. What happened? How did the experience affect you?” Anchor texts include:

• “Tuesday of the Other June,”  a short story by Norma Fox Mazer, describes the ordeal of being the target of a bully.
• Maya Angelou’s poem, “Life Doesn’t Frighten Me,” declares how she uses her inner strength in the face of terrors.

In Unit 3, the topic is World Wonders. The Essential Question is “Do we have a duty to preserve world wonders for future generations?” The informative articles provide opportunities for students to consider the challenges facing some of the world’s greatest monuments. Anchor texts include:

• “World’s Wonders, Worn Down?,” an article by Cody Crane from Science World, details the threats that could destroy Wonders of the World and what is being done to protect them.
• An excerpt from “How to Save the Taj Mahal,” an article by Jeffrey Bartholet from Smithsonian, examines the slow decay of the Taj Mahal and the struggle to preserve it amid current economic realities.
• An Extended Reading text, “Talking About World Wonders” by Joy Nolan, is an interview with a writer and arts advocate examining the history and future of architectural wonders.

In Unit 5, the topic/theme is Cities of Gold. The Essential Question is “Why does place matter?” Students read several poems that paint a picture of cities, an excerpt from a classic novel, an essay about the largesse and anonymity a city provides, and a memoir about a woman’s relationship with her home. Anchor texts include:

• Poems: “City” by Langston Hughes, “Song of the Builders” by Jessie Wilmore Murton, and “Our City” by Francisco X. Alarcon
• A novel excerpt from The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum
• An excerpt from the essay “Here is New York” by E.B.White
• An excerpt from the memoir Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 6 meet the criteria 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.

These questions and tasks are clearly labeled with the particular skill they are addressing. Students are given frequent opportunities to practice identifying and studying specific elements of texts, from analyzing words to looking at the structures of paragraphs and the larger text itself. Close reading questions and tasks found in the margins of each text ask students to analyze writing, text structure, words and phrases in context, academic vocabulary, and literary devices. In the “Identifying Evidence” section, students analyze characters, events, and ideas with evidence and explanations from the text. Additional questions and tasks focus on Key Ideas and Details and Craft and Structure. The questions and tasks for the texts in each unit build upon each other and lead the students through the steady increase of skill to understanding larger topics and themes.  All of the questions first teach and then utilize grade appropriate understanding of language, key ideas, details, craft, and structure of the texts.

Representative samples of questions and tasks that support this indicator are:

In Unit 1, students read the short story “Tuesday of the Other June” by Norma Fox Mazer and answer questions. Examples of questions that require students to demonstrate their understanding of language, key ideas, details, craft, and structure of the texts include, but are not limited to:

• Words and Phrases in Context: Explain what June’s mother means when she begs her daughter in paragraph 1 to “turn the other cheek.”
• Writing: How does Mazer depict June’s relationship with her mother?
• Text Structure: How are paragraphs 8 and 9 different from the surrounding paragraphs?
• Academic Vocabulary: What is the effect of using the word “torment” in paragraph 39? What does this word tell you about how June is dealing with the bullying at swimming class?
• Literary Analysis: How is June seeing the Other June in paragraph 63 an example of irony?
• Key Ideas and Details: Use evidence you collected to summarize the key idea of Mazer’s short story. What is the central idea of the text? Use evidence.
• Craft and Structure: Make a list of significant events that build the conflict in order.

In Unit 3, the questions throughout the texts build upon each other and lead the student through a systematically deeper reading of the text.  In the first reading selection from a magazine article, “World’s Wonders, Worn Down?,” students read about updating the list of Seven Wonders of the World and consider what Wonders they would put on the list.  In the beginning, students are asked questions about the text structure and academic vocabulary, such as:

• Why does the writer begin the text with the question, “how do you decide what places to visit when you go on vacation?”
• Identify the heading and two subheadings on this page. What does each one tell you?
• Find details in the text that suggest it is possible to preserve the statues.

All of these questions require the students to go directly back to the text and find the answers.

Later in Unit 3, students read an interview titled “Talking About World Wonders” and are given more difficult questions and tasks, such as:

• What are the key reasons that DuPre believes the George Washington Bridge is a great wonder?"
• DuPre calls the Statue of Liberty 'the most avant-garde structure [of its time] in the United States.' Determine the meaning of this phrase.

In Unit 6, the materials that students are asked to look at build upon what they have been asked to read and understand in Unit 3. They are again given a selection of nonfiction reading that includes magazine articles and nonfiction excerpts. The questions they consider also increase in complexity as they apply their understanding to the new material. They are asked questions at the start of the unit in the magazine article “New Discoveries in Ancient Egypt” such as:

• Why does the author choose to use the word “ancient” in paragraph 3?
• Explain what was startling about the discovery in the ancient graveyard. Use details from paragraph 4 to support your answer.

In both of these questions, students are asked to find specific details, and then apply those details to analysis or inference.

Later in Unit 6, in the nonfiction excerpt, “from Cities of the Dead,” students are asked questions that are similar but increase the difficulty such as:

• What is the purpose of the subheadings in this text? Why is the first heading different than the others on pages 264 and 265?
• Why are the last sentences of paragraphs 20-21 in italics? What does the author achieve with this effect?

In both of these examples students are asked to use prior learning from earlier sections about text structure such as subheadings and the use of italics, to identify the use in the text, and then analyze the author’s use of those structures to affect the text.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 6 meet the criteria that materials support 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. There is a cohesive writing plan in the Teacher Edition Implementation Guide that identifies the movement from daily On Demand and Summarizing writings to the culminating Performance Task. Students are provided with a consistent, basic framework for process writing and apply the framework to a variety of tasks. The writing tasks span the year and match with the expectations of writing in the CCSS.  Writing instruction supports student growth over the course of the year by introducing increasingly more difficult prompts for the Performance Task. Each Performance Task provides students with a model, process for analyzing the model, writing protocols for all of the steps of the writing process, and checklists and rubrics to monitor student growth over time. Throughout the year, both teacher and peers provide feedback to ensure writing skills are increasing. The Teacher Edition instructs the teacher to have the students discuss the rubrics with classmates, guide student self-evaluation, and conference with the students using the rubrics to provide feedback.

Examples of activities that support students’ increasing writing skills include, but are not limited to:

• In Unit 1, students write a fictional narrative in which a character from one of the unit texts faces another challenging experience. They follow the writing process steps in separate activities: Gather Evidence, Organize Ideas, Language Study, Convention Study, Revise and Edit, and Publish. After analyzing the model text, teachers are instructed: “Use Routine 9: Writing Process to engage students with what they will be working on over the next several days.” The Teacher Edition has ample teacher guidance as students work through the writing process.
• In Unit 4, after reading an excerpt from Funny in Farsi by Firoozeh Dumas, teachers are instructed to “Use Routine 6: On Demand Writing to have students record responses.” Students answer: “How does Dumas react to her classmates’ curiosity? Compose an answer using at least two examples from the text.” This example is illustrates a common writing task over the course of the school year. 
• In Unit 7, as a culminating Performance Task, students review a model essay and begin writing an informative essay: “In these texts, what techniques are used to describe and explain relationships between individuals and the world?” They follow the writing process steps in separate activities. After analyzing the model text, teachers are instructed to “Use Routine 9: Writing Process to engage students with what they will be working on over the next several days.”

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 6 meet the criteria that materials provide a design, including accountability, for how students will regularly engage in a volume of independent reading either in or outside of class.
At the end of each of the seven units, the independent reading section includes a design and procedures for how students will regularly engage in a volume of independent reading either in or outside of class. This “Independent Reading” page includes a list of “Literature Circle Leveled Novels,” as well as Independent reading “Fiction, Nonfiction, and Novels,” and Films, TV, Websites, and Magazines that are thematically related to the unit. Students choose their books and meet with teachers and peers to ask questions, lead discussions, and deepen comprehension of texts. The Teacher Edition suggests that these are scheduled as daily homework, with weekly teacher-monitored assessment. The Teacher Edition includes an appendix section on Literature Circles with information on planning independent reading. This page includes information on text complexity.  Additional resources tied to the novels are found in the online Teacher Edition. Though the materials meet the expectation, the feasibility of implementation should be a consideration for adoption of the curriculum. While there are opportunities for teachers to provide students with independent reading and literature circle reading, there is no direct support for teachers to implement this reading in a 45-50 minute class period with the structure provided. In the 90 minute block - the time period suggested by the curriculum - there is time built in for teachers to implement the outside independent reading.
Examples of the structures and instructions provided to teachers for independent reading in all units include:

• In the Literature Circle section of the Teacher Edition, teachers are provided instruction and guidelines for successful literature circles. The content of the questions and associated writing tasks differ by novel, but the overall protocol is the same. The following guidelines are included in the Planning pages under specific headings: Teacher’s Role, Student’s Role, Planning, Scheduling, Supporting, Pacing, and Setting up the Classroom. Other guidance for teachers includes:
• “Author File”- information about the author.
• “Resources” - a box of the downloadable resources available for each novel.
• Literature Circles in Action page - which includes information under the headings: Literature Circle Steps, Forming Groups, and Implementation.
• In each unit, specific Guidelines for each Literature Circle novel are provided under the following headings: Before Reading - Create Interest, Build Background Knowledge, During Reading - Pre-teach Academic Vocabulary, Talk About It - Identify Key Ideas, Support Discussion, Write About It (students are given prompts and use Routine 6: On Demand Writing), After Reading - Connect to the Essential Question (Questions are provided at the Personal, Textual, and Cultural level).
• In the Assessment and Grading page of the Teacher Edition, teachers receive information under the headings: What and How to Evaluate, Grading Literature Circles, Refining the Process, as well as an Evaluation Methods grid which lists the downloadable resources (Observation Checklist, Student Self-Evaluation, and Student Group Evaluation) and a Scoring Guide matrix. This section also includes daily reading logs, Higher Order Thinking Resources and Reading Counts! Quizzes.

Examples of the texts offered as literature circle or independent reading texts, student activities, and teacher guidance (all units offer similar activities and guidance) include, but are not limited to:
Unit 1:

Literature Circle Leveled Novels: Each novel has a 1-2 sentence description and Lexile level.

• Bone: Out From Boneville by Jeff Smith
• Shiloh by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
• The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

Fiction, Nonfiction, and Novels: Each text has a 1-2 sentence description and Lexile level.

• Nory, Ryan’s Song by Patricia Reilly Giff
• Lord of the Flies by William Golding
• Julie of the Wolves by Jean Craighead George
• The Worst-Case Scenario: Survival Handbook by Joshua Piven
• Island of the Blue Dolphins Scott O’Dell
• Hatchet by Gary Paulsen
• Shipwreck at the Bottom of the World Jennifer Armstrong
• SAS Survival Handbook by John Lofty Wiseman

Independent Reading student activities:

• Teachers are prompted to encourage students to use the activities provided (all are downloadable Code-X resources)
• Write a Book Review Activity
• Explore the Essential Question Activity
• Additional Resources for tracking and vocabulary
• Reading Log Resource
• Vocabulary Log Resource

Teacher Edition instructions to introduce Literature Circles:

• Teachers are prompted to remind students that Literature Circles offer them opportunities to “talk meaningfully with other students about literature that relates to the Essential Question of the Unit.” (script provided)
• Teachers are prompted to “create interest by previewing Literature Circle titles.”
• Teachers are prompted to help students “form effective Literature Circles by choosing books based on interest and Lexile measure or Text Complexity.”
• Teachers are prompted to “facilitate and guide Literature Circles using instructional resources provided in the Literature Circle tab” as well as the following guidelines (guidelines listed).

Teacher Edition instructions to introduce Independent Reading:

• Introduction: Teachers are prompted to remind students of the importance of practicing specific reading strategies (script provided).