6th Grade - Gateway 2

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

All units provide students and teachers with a Unit Goal, which is located within the “Unit At-a-Glance” box. All texts are centered around each Unit Goal; students complete extension tasks, culminating tasks, cold-reads, and various other formative assessments that center around the concept of each Unit Goal. The topics include, but are not limited to archeology, survival, and The Great Depression.   

• In the "If Stones Could Speak" Unit, the unit goal states, “Students read literary and informational texts to understand that archaeologists, like detectives, work to piece together the past through investigation. Students express their understanding by analyzing evidence and drawing meaningful conclusions about history, texts, and their environment.” Throughout the unit, students read fiction and nonfiction texts that relate to this goal, such as the basics of archaeology, profiles of archaeologists, a poem about travel, and information about excavation. The Culminating Writing task and Extension tasks refer back to the anchor text of the unit, If Stones Could Speak.
• In the “Steve Jobs” Unit, the unit goal states, “Students read literary and informational texts about the role of failure in success. Students understand that success takes hard work, deliberate practice, and the ability to learn from failures and persevere. They express their understanding by exploring how an author’s word choice, use of evidence, and selected organization reflect a text’s purpose and then by writing their own personal narrative based on the models.” Throughout the unit, students read fiction and nonfiction texts that relate to this goal, such as articles about overcoming obstacles and a mindset for achievement, a video on famous failures, the story of David and Goliath, and the letters of Wilbur Wright. The Culminating Writing task and Extension tasks refer back to the anchor text of the unit, Steve Jobs’ "Stanford Commencement Address (2005)".
• In the "Hatchet" Unit, the unit goal states, “Students read literary and informational texts to understand how positive thinking, slowing down to think clearly, problem-solving, and constant vigilance support survival in the face of grave danger and overwhelming odds. Students express their understanding of characters in literature by analyzing the struggle of man versus nature and the life lessons we can learn from others’ survival situations.” Throughout the unit, students read fiction and nonfiction texts that relate to this goal, such as various survival stories and information about how to survive in the wilderness. The Culminating Writing task and Extension tasks refer back to the anchor text of the unit, Hatchet.
• In the "Out of the Dust" Unit, the unit goal states, “Students read literary and informational texts to understand how people respond to adversity, the lessons that can be learned from hardship and failure, and what happens when we take good fortune for granted. Students express their understanding of the social and environmental issues farmers faced in the 1930s, noting how reading literary and informational texts enhances their understanding of the topic.” Throughout the unit, students read fiction and nonfiction texts that relate to this goal, such as information about the drought, wheat prices, and the conditions in the Dust Bowl to the first-hand accounts of someone who lived through that time period. The Culminating Writing task and Extension tasks refer back to the anchor text of the unit, Out of the Dust.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 6 meet the expectation 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.

Throughout the materials, students independently and as a whole group complete questions and tasks that require analysis of individual texts. Students complete multiple reads of text with scaffolds such as read aloud, partner reading, and independent reading. The instruction has students answering questions and/or completing tasks that move from a literal understanding of the text to deep analysis within the texts or multiple texts. This scaffolded progression can be seen across the units, the sections, the lessons, and the assessments.

• In the "Out of the Dust" Unit, Lessons 12 and 13, and in the Section Three Quiz, students answer a progression of questions around the novel: “Part A: Which statement best describes how the tone of this passage impacts the mood? Part B: Which words from the excerpt contribute to the speaker’s tone in Part A? Which two words would you choose to describe the tone of this poem? Explain your choices. Use text evidence to support your answer.”
• In the "If Stones Could Speak" Unit, Lesson 37, students complete a Cold Read task. Students have 40 minutes to complete six questions about “Profiles of Archaeologist” from Intrigue of the Past by Research Laboratories of Archaeology. Questions include: "Which best describes the impact of Linda-McNaughton’s statements? What statement explains how each goes about trying to solve the problem through his/her work as an archaeologist? Which statement summarizes Aronson's advice in: The Ever-Changing Timeline of Stonehenge?"
• In the “Steve Jobs” Unit, Lesson 2, students analyze word choice in Steve Jobs’ “Stanford Commencement Address (2015)” with the following questions: "Identify words and phrases that are important to the meaning of the text. Discuss the questions: How does Jobs' word choice affect the tone? How does the tone of the speech affect the reader’s understanding? Answer the question: How does the author’s word choice and tone help you understand his experiences?"

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 6 meet the expectation 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.

Students have frequent opportunities to think about, discuss, and write about multiple texts within the daily lesson structure and as part of culminating activities and assessments. Students are often asked to reflect on texts as they relate to one another and revisit their understanding of texts after they have experienced new selections. Cold Read tasks, Culminating Writing tasks, and Extension tasks often include writing prompts that ask students to synthesize understanding across texts.

Examples include, but are not limited to:

• In the "Hatchet" Unit, Lesson 8, students “read a nonfiction text on survival and then use the advice in the text to determine whether or not Brian is making good decisions in the aftermath of the crash.” The students engage in a series of text-dependent questions to complete the lesson using the novel, Hatchet, and “What Would Peter Do?” These texts and questions support the building of knowledge around survival. The teacher tells the students to “Read along as I read 'What Would Peter Do?' aloud. Pause and think: What is the main idea? What are supporting details? Given that Brian’s situation in the wilderness was an emergency, did he follow the advice offered in 'What Would Peter Do?' The teacher then does the following: “Use teacher talk moves so students clearly express their ideas (Goal Two), provide evidence to support their claims.”
• In the "If Stones Could Speak" Unit, Lessons 2 and 3, students read the poem, “Travel” by Robert Louis Stevenson, and analyze the language and theme of the poem. In Lessons 7 and 8, students watch and analyze the film, “Episode 1: My First Adventure” from The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones, Volume One - The Early Years. In Lesson 8, students also reread the poem, “Travel”, and think about similarities and differences between the film and the poem and how their understanding of the poem has changed after having watched the film. They discuss in pairs and as a whole class and write about it in their Field Journals.
• In the “Steve Jobs” Unit, Lessons 1-6, students read and analyze word choice, central ideas, details, and claims in the "Stanford Commencement Address (2005)." In Lessons 7 and 8, students read and analyze the poems, “To Failure” by Philip Larkin and “Mother to Son” by Langston Hughes, using the TP-CASTT protocol. In Lesson 9, students participate in a fishbowl discussion to compare and contrast the central message of all three texts.
• In "The Witch of Blackbird Pond" Unit, Lesson 33, for the Cold Read task, students read “Identity” by Julio Noboa Polanco and answer a series of multiple-choice questions. Afterward, students complete a writing prompt. They are asked to read two lines from “Identity” (“If I could stand alone, strong and free/I’d rather be a tall ugly weed”) and respond to the prompt: “In an extended response explain what the speaker means by this statement. Then, explain how this point of view is reflected in The Witch of Blackbird Pond and compare and contrast how “Identity” and The Witch of Blackbird Pond approach the same theme.”

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 6 meet the expectation 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).

The materials contain lessons and tasks that build to culminating activities. Each unit has an established goal that is described for the teacher in the introduction to the unit and to the students in the first lesson of the unit. The students are also informed in the opening of the first lesson how they will eventually demonstrate that they met the goals of the unit, which is their successful completion of the culminating tasks. Each unit contains three culminating tasks: a Culminating Writing task, an Extension task which is either narrative or research in nature, and a Cold Read task. For each of the culminating tasks, the materials provide student directions, rubrics, and exemplars.

Examples of culminating tasks include:

• In the "If Stones Could Speak" Unit, the unit goal is “Students read literary and informational texts to understand that archaeologists, like detectives, work to piece together the past through investigation. Students express their understanding by analyzing evidence and drawing meaningful conclusions about history, texts, and their environment.” In Lessons 25-30, students complete an essay “that explains how the author introduces and elaborates his central idea and purpose.” The lessons in the unit support the culminating task and the unit goals by providing opportunities to read, write, and discuss throughout the lessons. In Lesson 4 and 5, students read from an informational text,  “Archaeology 101,” to summarize the text using a summarizing document. “In this lesson, students learn about the role of an archaeologist and are able to work with a partner to discuss and also write about “the central idea and important details of sections from “Archaeology 101.”
• In the "Out of the Dust Unit," the unit goal is “Students read literary and informational texts to understand how people respond to adversity, the lessons that can be learned from hardship and failure, and what happens when we take good fortune for granted. Students express their understanding of the social and environmental issues farmers faced in the 1930s, noting how reading literary and informational texts enhances their understanding of the topic.” For the Cold Read task at the end of the unit, students read a new selection, “Legacy,” from The Dust Bowl (a PBS website). They answer a series of multiple choice questions, followed by a writing prompt where they answer this question: “According to ‘Legacy,’ what were the causes of the Dust Bowl? Identify at least three causes and provide evidence for each cause. What lessons were learned? What evidence does the article provide in support of this idea?”
• In the “Steve Jobs” Unit, the unit goal is “Students read literary and informational texts about the role of failure in success. Students understand that success takes hard work, deliberate practice, and the ability to learn from failures and persevere. They express their understanding by exploring how an author’s word choice, use of evidence, and selected organization reflect a text’s purpose and then by writing their own personal narrative based on the models.” In the Extension task, students conduct research on a person who overcame failure. Then the students write a speech that emulates Jobs’ commencement address in first person that address about how the person they studied overcame failure.
• In the "Hatchet" Unit, the unit goal is “Students read literary and informational texts to understand how positive thinking, slowing down to think clearly, problem solving, and constant vigilance support survival in the face of grave danger and overwhelming odds. Students express their understanding of characters in literature by analyzing the struggle of man versus nature and the life lessons we can learn from others’ survival situations.” Students complete the culminating task: “Select an event from Hatchet. What did Brian do to aid or hinder his survival? Does Hatchet have instructional value as survival guide? Write a multi-paragraph report explaining how Brian was successful and/or could have improved his situation if he had followed the steps provided in the article case once about the instructional value of Hatchet.” To support students in completing the essay, students “reread chapter 5 with a partner and look for words and phrases that stick out,” and in Lesson 7, students “write a Claim, Evidence, Reasoning (CER) paragraph with a claim and evidence.” Students work in partners and are given the following questions to consider and answer while working together: “What words/phrases make me see clear images? What words/phrases make me hear sounds? What words/phrases are used in a different way than I’m used to seeing?” Students share out their answers to the whole class, and then complete the following task: "Respond to this question in your reading journal handout: How does Gary Paulsen use diction to develop the main character, Brian? Write a claim and support your claim with at least two pieces of text evidence.” Students are given a “CER Paragraph Frame” document that acts as an outline for their paragraph response.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 6 meet the expectation that materials include a cohesive, year-long plan for students to interact with and build key academic vocabulary words in and across texts.

The Resource Library for each unit includes a “Vocabulary Guide” that includes the following: words and phrases to teach, words and phrases to define, and two whole-class instructional strategies for teaching vocabulary: semantic mapping and word displays. Each unit contains a text complexity and vocabulary analysis document. The vocabulary analysis portion provides a list of vocabulary words and where they appear in the anchor text. The words are categorized by whether they can or can not be determined in context and whether they demand less or more teaching time. “Section supports” within the unit structure outline a protocol for explicitly teaching vocabulary and provide specific “Vocabulary Tasks” and “Mentor Sentence Language Tasks.” Within the lesson plan structure, the “Let’s Work With Words” section focuses on the development of vocabulary and language through explicit instruction and formative practice.

• In the “Vocabulary Guide,” teachers examine their vocabulary instruction across the year and throughout all lessons and units. Suggestions are given to teachers to speed up vocabulary growth for all students including, but not limited to, “reading aloud texts that are written at a level above the students’ independent reading levels, or prompting students to read a series of texts on the same topic.”
• In the “Steve Jobs” Unit, “Section Supports” provide additional support for teachers including “Protocols for Explicitly Teaching Vocabulary.” In this section, teachers are given steps to explicitly teach the word “naively.” The steps include: teacher presentation, definition, explanation, connections, and application.
• In the "If Stones Could Speak" Unit, teachers are provided with a “Text Complexity and Vocabulary Analysis.” Within this document, teachers are provided with critical vocabulary in If Stones Could Speak Unlocking the Secrets of Stonehenge. Vocabulary found within the anchor text is divided into a square diagram chart labeled the following: “Words that demand less teaching time,” “Words that demand more teaching time,” “Words that can be determined in context,” and “Words that cannot be determined in context.” Words are further divided via the chapter in which they appear, for example: “Chapter 8: excavations, homelands, hypnotized.” Students encounter all words from the “Text Complexity Analysis” throughout the unit.
• In the "Out of the Dust" Unit, Lesson 5, students practice vocabulary within the “Let’s Work With Words” section. Students are presented with the word “drought” and two definitions. Based on the “Teaching notes,” teachers “Divide the class into pairs using an established classroom routine. Direct pairs to select a partner A and B...Then direct partner A to begin the discussion by answering the question on the slide: ‘Have you ever experienced a drought?’ Then direct partner B to respond and share. Conclude the discussion by conducting a whole-class discussion in response to the question on the slide.” Students will then continue to read the text, where their purpose is directly linked to the vocabulary word: “Your purpose in reading this text is to determine causes and potential remedies of droughts.”
• In "The Witch of Blackbird Pond" Unit, Lesson 6, students complete the “Let’s Work With Words” section. Students complete a semantic map graphic organizer, and the teacher details the following from the “Teaching notes”: “Yesterday, when we read the informational text, ‘Puritans’, there were two words that were important but unfamiliar to us: ‘frivolity’ and ‘persecuted.’...today we are going to use semantic maps to help us more deeply understand and use the words to describe Kit and her situation in The Witch of Blackbird Pond. We will complete a semantic map for ‘frivolity’ together and then you will work with a group to complete a map for ‘persecuted'.”

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 6 meet the expectation 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.

Writing is used across lesson plans and assessments as a learning tool and as a way for students to express their understanding. Lesson plans are scaffolded so that students develop their understanding of texts thoroughly before having to write thoughtfully about them. Within lessons, students complete smaller writing tasks such as taking notes, filling in graphic organizers, and writing quick responses to guiding questions before they are asked to complete more demanding writing tasks for more complex selections at the end of the unit. Classroom discussion is used as a regular tool to prepare students for writing assignments, and more in-depth writing assignments are broken down into smaller, more manageable tasks to prepare students for writing the rough draft. Students learn the components of good writing on a smaller scale through language tasks that focus on sentence-level meaning and writing structures. Each unit concludes in a multi-draft Culminating Writing task that synthesizes the students’ understanding of the texts they read in a formalized fashion. Additionally, Extension tasks are included for either narrative or research writing.

For example:

• In the "Hatchet" Unit, Lesson 13, students write a narrative based on a portion of the text. They choose a portion and change the point of view from third person to first person. Students write a paragraph choosing their scene.
• In "If Stones Could Speak" Unit, Lessons 25-30, students begin the writing process for the Culminating Writing task. Specifically, in Lesson 27, they write a first draft to answer the prompt: "Write an essay that explains how the author introduces and elaborates his central idea and purpose.” In Lesson 28, the students take their writing and cite evidence using direct quotations as they revise. In Lesson 29, they add transition words to their draft as they revise it and, finally in Lesson 30, they publish their draft.
• In the “Steve Jobs” Unit, Lesson 17, students complete a written response to the Cold Read task. They have 40 minutes to complete the task. Part of that task is writing a multi-paragraph response that determines the central idea of the article and explains how the author uses the events of Hershey’s life to develop the central idea. Students cite evidence from the article to support their response. They also observe the conventions of standard English.
• In the "Out of the Dust" Unit, Lesson 19, students write an argumentative essay. In this argumentative essay, students write five paragraphs, including introduction, body, and a conclusion paragraph. The body paragraphs should have a topic sentence, a sentence that explains the reasoning, pieces of evidence, and a conclusion. This serves as the first draft of their argumentative essay.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 6 meet the expectation 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.

Students engage in lessons and activities where they gather information from sources for the purposes of research and supplemental understanding of texts. They draw evidence from literary and informational selections to discuss the texts and support claims they make about the texts. Students also complete larger research projects at the end of units that require them to obtain information from multiple credible sources and synthesize that information to convey their understanding of a topic or task.

For example:

• In the "If Stones Could Speak" Unit, Lesson 16, students participate in a lesson to trace different theories about Stonehenge. Students also must identify the evidence to back up these various theories using an evidence chart. Students begin the evidence chart with a teacher model and then finish it independently. This lesson explicitly teaches how to locate a theory or claim and how to identify the evidence that supports the theory.
• In the “Steve Jobs” Unit, Lessons 36-41, for the Extension task, students conduct research on a person who overcame failure then write and present a speech about this person.
• In the "Hatchet" Unit, Lessons 32-38, for the Extension task, students work in small groups to investigate survival stories and create a multimedia presentation explaining the main character trait that resulted in the person’s survival.
• In the "Out of the Dust" Unit, Lessons 34-38, for the Extension task, students read “10 Things You May Not Know About the Dust Bowl” by Christopher Klein then research the answer to one of two research questions: “What were the causes of the Dust Bowl, and what efforts have been made to prevent similar disasters? What was daily life like in the Dust Bowl area during the 1930s?” After students complete the research, they create an interactive news article.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 6 meet the expectation 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.

Students have frequent opportunities to engage in independent reading through scaffolded lessons and self-selected materials. Students read portions of the anchor text independently after they have experienced the teacher reading the text to them and after reading the text in pairs. Students are held accountable through the use of reading logs, discussion, formative, and summative assessments. Students also reread selections independently after having listened to them or read them in pairs. For Cold Read tasks, students are required to read selections independently and complete multiple choice questions and writing tasks to show their understanding. Each unit comes with a “Family Resource” document with a suggested book list for helping to deepen students’ knowledge of the topic being studied. It also provides suggestions for how parents can plan and encourage independent reading activities at home.

• In the "If Stones Could Speak" Unit, Lesson 11, students are instructed to "Reread 'Archaeology: Then and Now' from Intrigue of the Past, Part 1: Fundamental Concepts Introduction and 'Archaeology 101' with a partner." After rereading the texts, the students work with a partner to compare and contrast the two texts using an “H-Chart.” Finally, the students independently record their answers to a reflection question in their “Field Journal.” Both the H-chart and Field Journal hold students accountable for their partner reading.
• In the “Steve Jobs” Unit, Lessons 16 and 17, students complete a practice Cold Read task where they independently read the article, “Milton Hershey” from the Louisiana EAGLE, and answer multiple choice questions and write a written response to demonstrate understanding of the text.
• In the "Out of the Dust" Unit, Lessons 39 and 40, students complete a Cold Read task where they independently read the informational text, “Legacy” from The Dust Bowl, and the poem, “Leaving the Dust Bowl” by Bob Bradshaw, and express their understanding of the texts by answering multiple-choice questions and completing an essay.
• In the "Hatchet" Unit, Lesson 5, students are told to read the rest of Chapter 4 independently, starting with the paragraph that begins with “Brian opens his eyes.” The students have to annotate the text and complete a reading journal handout.