6th Grade - Gateway 3

The materials reviewed for CK-12 Interactive Middle School Math 6 for CCSS do not provide strategies for informing all stakeholders, including students, parents, or caregivers, about the program and suggestions for how they can help support students’ progress and achievement. Although the materials support teachers with planning, instructions, and analysis of student progress, there are no specific resources for parents or caregivers. While students are able to access their reports, there are no strategies provided to assist their progress or achievement. There are no explanations for parents or caretakers on the place to create an account to help support in-class learning or home instruction.

The materials reviewed for CK-12 Interactive Middle School Math 6 for CCSS partially provide assessments which offer accommodations that allow students to demonstrate their knowledge and skills without changing the content of the assessment.

The materials have accommodations that are built into every Review Questions/Quiz. Teachers can set the number of attempts allowed, adjust the time limit, allow students to pause and resume, show hints, show solutions, or shuffle the questions. Teachers are able to alter these quizzes by choosing from item sets or adding their own questions. As a result, these items have the potential to alter grade-level expectations due to the fact that these are teacher-created items.  A Word version of the End of Chapter Assessments is included, making these assessments customizable. Both assessments are only available in English.

The materials reviewed for CK-12 Interactive Middle School Math 6 for CCSS provide varied approaches to learning tasks over time and variety in how students are expected to demonstrate their learning with opportunities for students to monitor their learning.

Students can demonstrate learning through Inline Questions, Review Questions, and Adaptive Practice. The Interactives offer additional opportunities for students to demonstrate their learning. Some of the Discussion Questions offer multiple solution paths, and the Inline and Review Questions give immediate feedback to the student. Student reports provide levels of mastery: beginning, exploring, developing, proficient or mastery; these reports give the students an idea of how well they are doing on a specific concept.

Throughout the materials, students work through Interactives that have a variety of outcomes. Students also answer Inline and Review Questions and have discussions that build off of the Interactives. For example, in Lesson 2.4, Constant Speed Unit Rate, Activity 1,  students use an Interactive to “track the distance that a train goes over time.” The Teacher Notes state, “Students can use the PLIX to model speed along a number line. They begin with a single rate and then experiment with changing speeds.” (6.RP.3)

Students have opportunities to share and compare their thinking with others. In many lessons, students discuss their findings during the Interactive and following Inline Questions. Sometimes students are asked to compare their thinking with others. Examples include:

• In Lesson 1.4, Double Number lines & Equivalent Ratios, Activity 4 asks, “How do you mix brown paint?” The Discussion Question asks, ” When do you think you would prefer to use a tape diagram and when would you prefer to use a number line? Discuss with your class or in the CK-12 cafe!” The Teacher Notes on this question state, “Answers may vary. Some students may prefer to use a tape diagram when each numerical increment has an associated value. Allow the students the opportunity to discuss their answers as a class. A class discussion will provide students the opportunity to analyze the arguments of their classmates.” (6.RP.3)

• In Lesson 5.10, Absolute Value as Distance on the Coordinate Plane, Making a Robot Part 8, Activity 3, the Discussion Question asks, “The next step is to build the function which will return the number of steps taken by the robot. What would this function look like in two dimensions? How would the function return the number of steps taken both horizontally and vertically? Allow students to discuss how absolute value can be used to find the total number of steps taken by the robot. The students should realize that every time a number is entered into either the stepsX(n) function or the stepsY(n), the absolute value of the number entered will need to be added to the total number of steps taken. “ (6.NS.7 & 6.NS.8)

Students are able to reflect on their work and understand where they are in their learning through different reports, like the Heat Map. The reports that the student receives on the Adaptive Practice give feedback based on the difficulty level of each question answered, but there is no self-reflection.

The materials reviewed for CK-12 Interactive Middle School Math 6 for CCSS partially provide opportunities for teachers to use a variety of grouping strategies. The program does include materials designed for each child’s regular and active participation in grade-level content. However, the majority of the lessons are based on individual instruction. Lesson instructions in the Teacher Notes provide teachers with suggestions for grouping strategies that include small-group options, working with partners and individual instruction. However, there is no guidance provided to the teacher on how to assign partners or on how to form the group based on the different needs of the students. Examples include, but are not limited to:

• In Lesson 5.6, The Four Quadrants, Activity 3, Making a Robot Part 5, Discussion Question, the Teacher Notes direct teachers to “allow students to discuss the questions above. The goal is for the students to determine that the current forward and backward notation will not be sufficient, and a left and right command with similar notation will be necessary.” (6.NS.6) While the goal of the discussion is stated, there is no suggestion as to how to form the small groups based on the student needs.

• In Lesson 10.5, Measures of Center and Variability, Activity 1, Determining the Difference - Center or Variability? The Teacher Notes state, “This activity could be used as the basis of a classroom discussion in order to help students see that some questions are answered by considering variability rather than the center. The activity might be difficult for students if it's the first time they have thought about statistical questions that could focus on variability too. Thus, it might work best in a small group setting or as a whole group class discussion.” (6.SP.3 & 6.SP.6) While there is the suggestion that this be done small or whole group, there is no guidance as to how to form the small groups based on the student needs.

The materials reviewed for CK-12  Interactive Middle School Math 6 for CCSS partially provide a balance of images or information about people, representing various demographic and physical characteristics.

The materials do not contain many images depicting people. The Interactives have images of things or shapes. Students with disabilities are not included. Since this is a digital series, the names in the text can be changed to make it more relatable to students. Many of the questions do not use names, just non-specific gender terms such as the following: you, the student, the class, ... etc. Although athletes in pictures are generally male, an equal number of male and female names are used. However, only a few names appear to represent different races. Examples include:

• In Lesson 1.5, Completing Tables of Equivalent Ratios; Activity  2, the picture is of males racing bikes. Then in the Extension Activity for the same lesson the picture is that of a male riding a recumbent bike. (6.RP.3)

• In Lesson 7.5, Defining Independent and Dependent Variables, Activity 1 states, “Noreen is an engineer who ran a test to determine whether solar panels produce more energy at warmer or cooler temperatures.” (6.EE.9)

• In Lesson 7.6, Writing Equations,  Activity 2, the example given states, “Darius and three friends go out to dinner. They decide to split the bill between them equally. Write an equation to represent this relationship. Use x to represent the independent variable and y to represent the dependent variable.” (6.EE.9)

The materials reviewed for CK-12  Interactive Middle School Math 6 for CCSS do not provide guidance to encourage teachers to draw upon student home language to facilitate learning. There is no evidence of promoting home language knowledge as an asset to engage students or purposefully utilizing student home language in context with the materials.

The materials reviewed for CK-12  Interactive Middle School Math 6 for CCSS do not provide guidance to encourage teachers to draw upon student cultural and social backgrounds to facilitate learning. While there is some culture implied by names or problem contexts, specific guidance on how to connect students' cultural and/or social backgrounds to facilitate learning or motivate students is not found.

The materials reviewed for CK-12  Interactive Middle School Math 6 for CCSS do not provide supports for different reading levels to ensure accessibility for students. While there are some videos and other tools available under the Related Content section, they do not identify strategies to engage students of different reading levels to ensure accessibility. Some of the Teacher Notes suggest that teachers encourage the students to use the proper vocabulary, but the materials provide no specific strategies for supporting students at different reading levels or grouping students by reading levels. 

The materials reviewed for CK-12 Interactive Middle School Math6 for CCSS integrate technology such as interactive tools, virtual manipulatives/objects, and/or dynamic mathematics software in ways that engage students in the grade-level standards, when applicable.

The materials integrate technology in ways that engage students in the grade-level standards and are aligned to the standards and the Mathematical Practices. Third party programs such as Geogebra are used to assist with simulations and the data collection tool. Insight is available for teachers to use to gauge engagement and performance. Each lesson includes Interactives that relate to the concept and engage students in the process of learning. However, the Interactives cannot be customized.

The materials reviewed for CK-12 Interactive Middle School Math 6 for CCSS include or reference digital technology that provides opportunities for teachers and/or students to collaborate with each other, when applicable. 

Students can collaborate with other students through the CK-12 Cafe, Math, and PLIX Corner. The Math Corner is for students to ask questions or help other students. The PLIX Corner is where students can discover and discuss the Interactives found throughout CK-12 concepts. Teachers are also able to collaborate with students through the Math and PLIX Corner. 

Teachers can collaborate with other teachers through the CK-12 Cafe, Jumpstart for Educators, which allows all teachers with access to the materials, to “ask questions, collaborate, and explore CK-12 in this forum for educators.”

The materials reviewed for CK-12 Interactive Middle School Math 6 for CCSS have a visual design that supports students in engaging thoughtfully with the subject and is neither distracting nor chaotic. 

The lessons follow a consistent format and the print, as well as any graphics, are easy to follow and do not detract from the math. Each lesson starts with a Warm Up and is followed by activities that contain Interactives with Inline Questions and sometimes Discussion Questions. At the end of each lesson is a set of Review Questions for students. This format is consistent in each chapter throughout all grade levels. The graphics are visually appealing and support student understanding of the concepts. The font size, directions and text are appropriate for the grade level.  The format is engaging, and the Interactives have clear directions that make them easy to use.

The materials reviewed for CK-12 Interactive Middle School Math 6 for CCSS provide teacher guidance for the use of embedded technology to support and enhance student learning, when applicable.

All lessons include embedded technology in the form of Interactives. The Teacher Notes give guidance on how to use the technology to enhance student learning. Inline and Discussion Questions often follow these Interactives. Examples include:

• In Lesson 3.11, Comparison Division, Activity 1, the Teacher Notes on the Interactive state, “Students get a chance to work with fractions within the context of time and scheduling. Students can type in the amount of hours (between 0-24) they spend on a certain activity in the text boxes. Once students have entered a number they can see the fraction of the day that that activity takes up. Students can type in their own activity in the bottom row of activities. The total row will show how many total hours they have used and the fraction of the day that is taken up by an activity. If students use all of their 24 hours and try to input more hours for another activity they will get a notification at the bottom of the screen that says: ‘There are only 24 hours during the day.’”(6.NS.1)

• In Lesson 8.9, Multiple Inequalities, Activity 1, the Teacher Notes on the Interactive state, “For this Interactive, students will practice graphing compound inequalities on a number line. Students drag the red points along the number line to plot the solutions to the given inequality. Students then click the points to create an open circle or closed circle. Once students have graphed the inequality, they can click the 'Check' button. If the graph is correct, it will turn green and students can try another inequality.” (6.EE.5, 6.EE.6, 6.EE.7, & 6.EE.8)