Kindergarten - Gateway 1
Back to Kindergarten Overview
Note on review tool versions
See the series overview page to confirm the review tool version used to create this report.
- Our current review tool version is 2.0. Learn more
- Reports conducted using earlier review tools (v1.0 and v1.5) contain valuable insights but may not fully align with our current instructional priorities. Read our guide to using earlier reports and review tools
Loading navigation...
Focus & Coherence
Gateway 1 - Meets Expectations | 85% |
|---|---|
Criterion 1.1: Focus | 2 / 2 |
Criterion 1.2: Coherence | 4 / 4 |
Criterion 1.3: Coherence | 6 / 8 |
The instructional materials reviewed for Kindergarten meet the expectations for focus on major work and coherence. The instructional materials meet the expectations for focus through their assessments and design concerning class time spent on major work. The instructional materials partially meet the expectations for coherence, and they show strengths in having an amount of content that is viable for one school year and fostering coherence through connections within the grade.
Criterion 1.1: Focus
The instructional materials reviewed meet the expectation for not assessing topics before the grade-level in which the topic should be introduced. Overall, there are no assessment items that align to topics beyond Kindergarten.
Indicator 1a
The instructional materials reviewed for Kindergarten meet the expectations for assessing grade-level content. The assessments include material that is appropriate for Kindergarten. Probability, statistical distributions, similarity, transformations and congruence do not appear in the assessments.
Assessments considered during the review for this indicator include the Assessment Activity and the Assessment Checklists which accompany them.
Kindergarten Investigations uses Benchmarks, “clear mathematical expectations for what students should know and be able to do” (Teacher’s Edition Unit 3 page 10). Each Benchmark has an accompanying Assessment Checklist; therefore, observing students’ work and engaging them in conversation about their ideas is the primary means of assessing mathematical understanding. Assessments are found in the Assessment Sourcebook.
Examples of quality assessments include:
- Unit 1 Assessment Checklist: Counting. This assessment checklist assesses many aspects of counting such as knowing the names of numbers in order (rote sequence), one-to-one correspondence, knowing how many in a group, and double-checking counting for accuracy.
- Unit 2 Assessment Checklist: Counting and MP4 and MP8. This assessment has students counting objects to 10. First they are given just ten cubes to count. The teacher watches to see if the student knows the names and sequence of numbers, counts each object once and only once, and double-checks.
- Unit 3 Assessment Checklist: Describing 2-D Shapes. This assessment is used to assess if students can identify and describe the overall size, shape, and features of familiar 2-D shapes. The teacher uses shape cards to assess each student’s ability to describe 2-D Shapes. The teacher re-orients shapes to see if the student can still identify.
Criterion 1.2: Coherence
Students and teachers using the materials as designed devote the large majority of class time in each grade K-8 to the major work of the grade.
The instructional materials reviewed meet the expectation for students and teachers devoting the large majority of class time to the major work of the grade when the materials are used as designed. Overall, the materials spend at least 65% of class time on the major work of Kindergarten.
Indicator 1b
Instructional material spends the majority of class time on the major cluster of each grade.
The instructional materials reviewed for Kindergarten meet the expectations for spending the majority of class time on the major clusters of the grade. Overall, approximately 88 percent of class time is spent on major work of the grade.
The instructional materials are separated into eight units. Each unit is composed of one, two, or three investigations, and each investigation is divided into sessions. The Implementing Investigations guide states in Part 4 (Classroom Routines) within the Overview that each session includes a Classroom Routine activity that is “introduced as a session activity and are then used outside of math time (e.g., during morning meeting, just before or after lunch or recess, or at the beginning or end of the day) or integrated into the math lesson as the first 10 minutes of a 70-minute math block.” The Classroom Routine activity requires 10-15 minutes which provides daily practice and review of previously learned skills. Each session requires sixty minutes. Three perspectives were used when calculating major work of the grade: number of units, number of investigations, and number of sessions.
- Approximately 5 of the 8 units focus on major work of the grade. This represents approximately 63 percent of the units.
- Approximately 18 of the 20 investigations focus on major work of the grade. This represents approximately 90 percent of the investigations.
- Approximately 123 of 140 sessions focus on or support the major work of the grade. This represents approximately 88 percent of the sessions.
The third perspective, number of sessions, is the most reflective of the instructional materials because it is based on the sessions which includes the instructional activities, review, and practice. As a result, approximately 88 percent of the materials focus on major work of the grade.
Criterion 1.3: Coherence
Coherence: Each grade's instructional materials are coherent and consistent with the Standards.
The instructional materials reviewed for Kindergarten partially meet the expectations for being coherent and consistent with the Standards. The instructional materials show strength in having an amount of content that is viable for one school year, but due to not always identifying work that is off grade-level, the materials are not always consistent with the progressions in the Standards. The materials do foster coherence through connections within the grade, but few of those connections are between major work of the grade and supporting work.
Indicator 1c
Supporting content enhances focus and coherence simultaneously by engaging students in the major work of the grade.
The instructional materials reviewed for Kindergarten partially meet expectations that supporting content enhances focus and coherence simultaneously by engaging students in the major work of the grade. Throughout the instructional materials, major work of the grade is sometimes supported by non-major work. However, there are some missed natural connections, and the supporting standards occasionally appear in lessons with few connections to the major work of the grade.
Although some attempts to connect supporting work to major work are made, students can often complete problems aligned to supporting work without engaging in the major work of the grade.
- In Unit 3 Session 2.3 students play the game “Fill the Hexagons.” Students roll a pattern block cube and then place that pattern block into the hexagon outline (K.G.A) on their game board. This continues until one player covers all of the hexagons. This work is taught separately and is repeated throughout the session within the math workshop.
- In Unit 5, all sessions, students are working on comparing and composing/creating shapes (K.G.B). This work is taught separately, and major work is found within the Counting Jar activity in each session, which is a 10 minute counting activity separate from the supporting work.
- In Unit 5 Session 1.4 the activity “Introducing Making Clay Shapes” has students creating a cylinder (K.G.5) from clay to match the cylinder from a set of Geoblocks. This work is taught separately and is repeated throughout the session within the math workshop.
Occasionally supporting standards are used to support the major work of the grade.
- In Unit 2, Sessions 2.1 and 2.2 during math workshop activities direct students to measure objects by comparing them to towers of 10 cubes (K.MD.2), which the students must count (K.CC.5). Students also count how many items were longer than the tower.
- In Unit 3 Session 1.3 students are counting sides on triangles and squares. (K.CC.5 and K.G.4)
- In Unit 7 Investigation 2 all three sessions connect survey data (K.MD.3) to counting totals. (K.CC.5)
Indicator 1d
The amount of content designated for one grade level is viable for one school year in order to foster coherence between grades.
The instructional materials reviewed for Kindergarten meet the expectations for the amount of content being viable for one school year.
- The instructional materials are divided into 8 units that have a total of 140 sessions.
- Each session is designed to be completed in 45-60 minutes. Each session is accompanied by a Ten-Minute Math activity that is designed to be completed in 10 minutes outside of math time.
- Each unit takes between 2 to 5 weeks to complete according to the “Kindergarten Curriculum Units and Pacing Chart” on page 9 of the Implementing Investigations In Kindergarten guide. Each unit includes an additional day beyond the days required to finish the sessions. This day could be used to complete the Intervention, Practice, and/or Extension activities that are included at the end of each investigation.
Indicator 1e
Materials are consistent with the progressions in the Standards i. Materials develop according to the grade-by-grade progressions in the Standards. If there is content from prior or future grades, that content is clearly identified and related to grade-level work ii. Materials give all students extensive work with grade-level problems iii. Materials relate grade level concepts explicitly to prior knowledge from earlier grades.
The materials reviewed for Kindergarten partially meet the expectations for being consistent with the progressions in the Standards. In general, the materials develop according to the grade-by-grade progressions in the Standards, but content from future grades is not clearly identified. The materials provide extensive work with grade-level problems for most standards, but the materials do not relate grade-level concepts explicitly to prior knowledge from earlier grades.
The materials develop according to the grade-by-grade progressions in the Standards, but content from future grades is not clearly identified. Examples of unclear identification include:
- In Unit 7 Session 3.1 students record the number of students in class on ten frames. This activity is related to the grade-level work of K.CC.5. This is grade-level work if the total number of students in class is less than 20 and would be aligned to 1.NBT.1 if the class had greater than 20 students. In Session 3.3 students are asked to count pairs of eyes (1.OA.2). This is related to the grade-level work of K.CC.2, counting forward beginning from a given number within the known sequence. In Sessions 3.3 through 3.8, students skip count by 5’s (2.NBT.2). This is related to the grade-level work of K.CC.2, counting forward beginning from a given number within the known sequence.
- Unit 8 says that this unit lays the foundation for the work students do in Grade 1 with counting, addition and subtraction, and place value.
- There is a heavy emphasis on data collection repeated throughout the units by a component called “Today’s Question.” The standard K.MD.3, which specifies that the category counts be less than or equal to 10, is listed for “Today’s Question.” However, the categories could end with number counts of more than 10 depending on how many students are in the class and how they answer “Today’s Question.” For example, in Unit 1 Session 3.1 students count and record how many boys and girls are in the class. In the sample given, there are 12 girls in the class.
The materials often give all students extensive work with grade-level problems.
- Recommendations for differentiation allow students to primarily work with grade-level tasks.
- The standards are addressed throughout the entire series, and no standards were completely omitted. Overall, the materials were on grade-level, and students had a variety of opportunities to engage in grade-level problems.
- The materials give students extensive work with most domains. However, within the domain of Operations and Algebraic Thinking, the standard K.OA.4 is found in Unit 8 in four sessions. These sessions may not allow all students to develop an understanding of finding a number that makes 10 when added to the given number.
The materials do not relate grade-level concepts explicitly to prior knowledge from earlier grades. The scope and sequence found in the Implementing Investigations book gives some limited information relating to prior knowledge by listing major topics and which units address those topics. Each unit has a “Connections: Looking Back” section at the beginning of the unit. Several units specifically refer to work from prior learning without providing explicit connections to specific standards.
- Unit 3 states that the unit "builds on students’ emerging knowledge of shapes, and the work they did identifying attributes of pattern blocks, Geoblocks, and other objects in Unit 1, to further develop their spatial sense and deepen their understanding of the geometrical world in which they live."
- Unit 4 describes how the unit builds mainly on the work in Unit 2, where students had many opportunities to develop their sense of numbers and quantities; connect number names, numerals, and quantities; count, compare, and order amounts; and directly compare the length of two or more objects.
Indicator 1f
Materials foster coherence through connections at a single grade, where appropriate and required by the Standards i. Materials include learning objectives that are visibly shaped by CCSSM cluster headings. ii. Materials include problems and activities that serve to connect two or more clusters in a domain, or two or more domains in a grade, in cases where these connections are natural and important.
The instructional materials reviewed for Kindergarten meets the expectations for fostering coherence through connections at a single grade, where appropriate and required by the Standards.
The materials begin each investigation with a planner that lists objectives for each session, and in the session materials, Math Focus points are listed at the beginning of each session. The instructional materials include objectives and Math Focus points that are visibly shaped by the CCSSM cluster headings for Kindergarten.
- In Unit 3 Session 2.3 the Math Focus Point is “Combining smaller shapes to make larger shapes.” This is visibly shaped by cluster K.G.B- Analyze, compare, create, and compose shapes.
- In Unit 6 Session 1.8 the Math Focus Points are “Connecting number names, numerals, and quantities" and "Counting a set of up to 20 objects.” These are visibly shaped by cluster K.CC.B, Count to tell the number of objects.
- In Unit 7 Session 2.2 the Math Focus Points are “Collecting, recording, and keeping track of and interpreting data," "Counting and ordering a sort by the number of items in each group," and "Identifying an attribute that two or more objects have in common.” These are visibly shaped by cluster K.MD.B, Classify objects and count the number of objects in each category.
The instructional materials include problems and activities that connect two or more clusters in a domain or two or more domains.
- In Unit 6, Sessions 2.1 through 2.3, 2.7, and 2.8 connect K.CC.A, K.CC.B, K.CC.C, and K.OA.A as students count sets of up to 20 objects, decompose the numbers to 10, and solve addition and subtraction story problems.