6th Grade - Gateway 2

The instructional materials for Grade 6 meet the criteria that texts are organized around a topic/topics (or, for grades 6-8, topics and/or themes) to build students’ ability to read and comprehend complex texts independently and proficiently.

Grade 6 is developed around the thematic concept of change. During the year, students learn how writers use that theme to tell stories in poetry, short stories, and nonfiction texts. Students are also asked to research topics and deepen understanding using film. There are opportunities for students to read and comprehend complex texts independently and proficiently as they build knowledge.

Guidance for struggling students is incorporated into the curriculum. Each anchor and supporting text includes a Second Read activity, which asks students to look closely at selected excerpts and passages to answer text dependent questions. The Independent Reading lists also include specific suggested informational and literary texts corresponding to the theme.

Reading, questions, writing tasks, and speaking and listening activities all revolve around the study of choices made and how they impact society while growing knowledge about subtopics within each unit. Students have ample opportunity during collaborative discussions to share connections between concepts taught in class and their independent reading, and are provided opportunities to demonstrate new knowledge and stances on the themes and topics in culminating activities. There is teacher support embedded in Teacher Wrap to redirect or reteach should students misunderstand core work or need comprehension .The online Close Reading Workshops include strategies to support students in determining what each text says explicitly and to make logical inferences from what it does not say explicitly. Students have ample opportunity during collaborative discussions to share connections between concepts taught in class and their independent reading, and are provided opportunities to demonstrate new knowledge and stances on the themes and topics in culminating activities.

• Unit 1 Stories of Change: Texts selected for this unit guide students through the art of storytelling while exploring the theme of change. Students analyze incident-response-reflection organizational structure and identify cause and effect relationships in selected texts. Independent Reading list is provided with Narrative and Informational texts related to the unit’s theme, with lexile levels provided that cover a range of ability and interest.
• Unit 2: The Power to Change: Texts selected for this unit ask students to look at change and growth as a regular part of human nature. Students analyze the power that internal and external forces have on an individual’s life, including the relationship between humans and animals. Students write an explanatory essay on their interpretations of and conclusions on how animals can positively change the life of a human after reading a selected novel Walk Two Moons, and autobiography and biography of animal rights activist Temple Grandin. Independent Reading suggestions include a combination of Narrative and Expository texts that support the unit’s theme of varying Lexile levels appealing to a range of ability and interests.
• Unit 3: Changing Perspectives: Students identify specific audience whose perspective they are trying to change. They select and organize information and language to communicate their position and learn to effectively debate contemporary issues through debate by reading a series of short articles, arguments, and letters. Independent Reading list associated with this unit provides students with a variety of texts associated with this theme, in a variety of ability and interest levels.

The materials for Grade 6 meet the criteria for materials containing sets of coherently sequenced questions and tasks that require students to analyze the language, key ideas, details, craft, and structure of individual texts.

In most texts, students are provided opportunities to analyze language and author's word choice as they read, through sidebar word meaning and word connection lessons and questions that prompt them to interact with text to find examples of figurative, sensory and vivid language, as well as roots and affixes and other components of language. Lessons and questions require them to interact with the text to find examples of figurative, sensory and vivid language, as well as roots and affixes, etc. The tasks throughout each unit, as well as culminating activities, set expectations and purpose for analyzing structure and craft through activities and questions for each Anchor and Supporting text. In addition, support is given for struggling students in the Teacher Wrap, which gives strategies such as chunking, scaffolding, and rephrasing questions. English Learners are supported through specially designed lessons in each unit that go along with Anchor Texts, but are specifically structured to help students comprehend the text through Close Reading, Academic Vocabulary and Collaborative Discussions lessons, that provide scaffolded vocabulary instruction, and guided close reading opportunities.

The Planning the Unit section at beginning of each unit gives suggestions for Graphic Organizers that will assist English Learners in that unit. Leveled Differentiated Instruction activities are found in each unit, offering the instructor suggestions for scaffolding challenging tasks that lead to the culminating assessments. These suggestions model differentiation techniques that can be used to adapt tasks throughout each unit. In each Unit Opener, there is a one page summary of differentiation strategies that can be found in the unit. Each text contains a Second Read component and questions are specifically labeled as Key Ideas and Details, and Craft and Structure, The Teacher Wrap in print and digital edition provides teachers with a host of options to help differentiate instruction to reach all learners.

Each activity gives multiple opportunities for students to analyze the language, key ideas, details, craft and structure of texts. A representative example of this is shown in Unit 1: Activity 1.2: What Makes a Narrative?:

• Students read “The Circuit” by Francisco Jimenez. Academic and Literary Terms are provided, along with definitions and cognates, available in audio in digital edition. Examples of these terms are “narrative,” “characterization,” “setting,” “dialogue,” and “conflict.”
• Content vocabulary specific to the selection is provided at point of use with definitions and cognates, where applicable. Examples of content specific vocabulary are “bracero,” “sharecropper,” “jalopy,” and “labor.”
• After the first read, the teacher is given various grouping options and strategies for students to answer text dependent questions about key details, craft, and structure, with increasing rigor and depth of knowledge demands. Suggested answers to Text Dependent questions are provided on the Digital platform. Questions include:
  • Key Ideas and Details: Reread the opening paragraph. What kind of work do the narrator and his family do? Cite details from the story that support your answers?
  • Key Ideas and Details: On pages 6 and 7, Jimenez describes the family’s departure. What do the details of the family’s departure help you understand? Cite evidence from the text to support your answer. Teacher is directed to guide struggling students to focus on portion of text to guide them to right answer.
  • Craft and Structure: What does the figurative phrase “ lump in my throat” in paragraph 12 tell you about the impact of events on the narrator so far in the story. Cite other evidence in the story to support your answer.
  • Key Ideas and Details: Revisit pages 6 and 7. What do you learn about the narrator? Cite textual evidence to support your answer.
  • Key Ideas and Details: On page 8, the narrator refers to the garage as home. What actions does the family take to make it a home? What does this tell us about how the family faces change?
  • Key Ideas and Details: Starting with paragraph 22, the narrator gets ready for school. What kinds of feelings does he have about leaving the family’s work and going to school. Highlight text that helps you answer the question. Teacher Wrap suggest that teacher guide students through the sequence of events leading up to the narrator’s arrival, paying attention to the narrator’s behaviour.
  • Craft and Structure: Reread page 9. What is the most important episode for the narrator at school?
• In Teacher Wrap, there is a section titled “Scaffolding the Text Dependent Questions,” which suggests that “ if students are struggling to answer this question, have them reread paragraphs 1-3 to locate words that describe the field workers and the setting, Also review the word connections box for ‘bracero’ with students.”

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 6 meet the criteria that materials contain a year-long, cohesive plan of writing instruction and tasks which support students in building and communicating a substantive understanding of topics and texts.

Grade 6 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 instruction spans the whole year, and instructional materials include well-designed lesson plans. These plans are located in the Foreword of each unit under the heading, Instructional Activities and Pacing. Skills identifiers are a located in the Index, in sidebars, and wraparounds in both the print and online Teacher Edition, as well as within Online Writer’s Workshops. The Teacher’s Resources in the digital teacher's version also lead instructors to a Writing Exemplar tab where student examples of writing from all genres can be found. These student samples are leveled and include exemplary, proficient, and do not meet standards. Protocols for teachers to implement and monitor students' writing development are also included there.

At the beginning of the year, students are directed to create a writing portfolio to keep all writing and revisions in order to monitor their growth as a writer. Protocols for this portfolio are described in the first lessons of Unit 1 in Activity 1.2 Understanding Change Creating a Reader/Writer Notebook and Portfolio. There is also a mechanism in the digital edition where students may edit and send their writing online to the teacher.

Writing projects, tasks, and presentations are aligned to the standards of the grade level. They provide substantial support for the students to learn new skills, to practice and develop learned skills, and to apply these writing skills to various tasks. Some components of writing are taught in isolation to learn and practice a skill, but the overall writing work of students has coherence and ensures attention to the integrated nature of the standards. Writing tasks are integrated and coincide with texts and themes. Students demonstrate their writing skills learned in class, while topics and tasks increase in rigor over the course of the school year. Teacher materials support students' writing development and include comprehensive supports, models, examples, and strategies, as well as graphic organizers. Materials provide guidance for time spent creating, revising, publishing, and reflecting.

Examples include the following:

• In Unit 1, Activity 1.2: Exploring the Concept of Choice Learning Targets, students "identify elements of a narrative by recording evidence of setting, characterization, dialogue, and conflict. A graphic organizer is provided so students can record these elements as they find them in suggested film clip of The Lion King." The Teacher to Teacher sidebar states “This activity begins the practice of finding textual evidence to support inferences and conclusions.” Students respond to a narrative writing prompt that asks them to tell a friend a story of going to the graveyard as Simba did in The Lion King, using pronouns correctly as they write in first person point of view, describing the conflict, sequence, and setting of events of the incident, and including details of your character’s feelings and dialogue. Students are instructed to keep this writing piece in their portfolio.
• In Unit 1, Activity 1.8: Creating a Narrative: Prewriting and Drafting. Learning Targets, students demonstrate an understanding of narrative elements by drafting a narrative. "Apply the writing process while drafting a personal narrative." Learning Strategies: Prewriting, Rereading, Drafting, Graphic Organizer.
  • Students pick a topic of their choice and use reporter's questions who, what, when, where, and why to complete a graphic organizer that includes the Incident, Cause, and Effect.
  • A second graphic organizer helps students plan the characters by deciding what they say and do.
  • To write the beginning, the AQQS Strategy is introduced (Anecdote, Question, Quote, and Statement).
  • Students then revisit narratives they have already read from the anthology, looking at particular quotes, and deciding which part of the AQQS strategy is being employed.
  • The next graphic organizer gives endings from the narratives they have read and asks students to describe how narrator ends the story and summarize how the narrator changes because of the incident, considering what the narrator has learned.

• In Unit 2, Activity 2.4: Planting the Seeds of Character Analysis Learning Targets, students use knowledge of characterization to write expository literary analysis paragraphs that compare or contrast characters. "Record textual evidence and write commentary explaining or analyzing it." Learning Strategies: Graphic Organizer, Note taking. Skimming/Scanning
  • Students use a graphic organizer to record details about characters in novel study while reading Walk Two Moons. Students "take a closer look" at the two main characters by taking notes on all the ways the author uses characterization with the graphic organizer.
  • The Academic Vocabulary sidebar provides definitions of compare and contrast, and the Grammar and Usage sidebar provides transition words for comparing and contrasting.
  • The Expository Writing prompt asks students to write an expository paragraph that compares and contrasts the two main characters in Walk Two Moons, including examples of appearance, actions, words and reactions of others , being sure to include a topic sentence, supporting details and commentary, transition words, present tense verbs, and correct pronouns.

• In Unit 3, Activity 3.6: The Formality of it All: Style and Tone, students write an original text using a formal style and tone. Learning Targets include analyzing the purpose of formal style and tone. Learning Strategies: Close Reading, Marking the Text, Rereading, Graphic Organizer. Literary Terms: tone, formal style Language and Writer’s Craft: formal style.
  • Students are given a definition of tone, as well as a word bank with examples such as angry, sharp, urgent, boring, etc. The Language and Writer’s Craft lesson on formal style explains that style is how an author or speaker uses words or phrases to form his or her ideas and to show his or her attitude toward the subject (tone). "Most often in academic settings, you should use a formal style." Examples of informal and formal sentences about the same subject are given, as well as a list of characteristics that show what to do or not do when using formal style.
  • Students then read an excerpt from “Letter on Thomas Jefferson” by John Adams, marking the text for precise nouns, active verbs,and diction specific to the topic and audience. After reading, students use a graphic organizer to analyze tone and style of letter, defining purpose of the letter, and examples of formal style. The formative assessment checks students’ understanding by asking them to write two letters. In the first letter, they are to write a short letter to their principal using informal style and an inappropriate tone. They are reminded to refer to the don’t list in the characteristics of formal style chart. In letter two, they are to transform the letter to use formal style and an appropriate tone, being sure to state a clear claim, support claims with reasons and evidence, and pay attention to style and tone.

• In Unit 4, Activity 4.8: Play Ball: Analyzing a Game of Life. After a close reading of the short story, "The Southpaw" by Judith Viorst, students respond to an expository writing prompt by explaining the theme of the story, using characters, conflict, and plot to identify supporting details. Students are instructed to be sure to establish a central idea, supporting the central idea with textual evidence from the story and thoughtful analysis, using precise diction to create a formal tone.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 6 meet the criteria that materials include a progression of focused, shared research and writing projects to encourage students to synthesize knowledge and understanding of a topic using texts and other source materials.

Grade 6 materials include research projects that are sequenced across a school year to include a progression of research-related skills. Materials support teachers in employing projects that develop students' knowledge on a topic via multiple resources. Materials provide many opportunities for students to apply reading, writing, speaking/listening, and language skills to synthesize and analyze per their grade level readings. Materials provide opportunities for both short and extended projects across the school year. Students have the opportunity to develop research skills throughout the school year, starting in Unit 2.

Examples of general progressions include:

• In Unit 2, Activity 2.8: Diction Detectives and Evidence. Skills are developed through Activity 2.19: Synthesizing Temple’s Story. The embedded assessment for this unit is Writing an Expository Essay.
• In Unit 3, research skills are further developed through several lessons, including: Activity 3.4 Creating Support with Reasons and Evidence, Activity 3.5 Do Your Research: Sources, Citation, and Credibility, Activity 3.6 The Formality of it All: Style and Tone, Activity 3.12 Citing Evidence.
• In Unit 4, students work toward the Embedded Assessment: Researching and Presenting Shakespeare. Lessons include Activity 4.4 Researching to Deepen Understanding and Activity 4.5 Planning to Present Research.

A specific sample from Unit 3 illustrates how the program focuses students on building their research skills in a carefully scaffolded manner:

• In Unit 3, Activity 3.5: Do Your Research: Sources, Citation, and Credibility.
  • Learning Target: Apply understanding of sources, citation, and credibility through discussion and note taking.
  • Learning Strategies: Quickwrite, Graphic Organizer, Note Taking.
  • Academic Vocabulary: research, plagiarism, credibility.

Students are provided with a graphic organizer to self assess their level of comfort with the steps of the research process. A second graphic organizer asks them to record what they know about the words sources, citation, and credibility. Primary and secondary sources are defined and examples are provided. Models are provided, showing the standard format for citing basic bibliographic information for common types of sources, such as books, films, personal interviews, internet sites, magazine and newspaper articles. Sample sources are given in a graphic organizer, and students are given opportunity to practice correct citations. Internet sites are evaluated for credibility and a list of common Internet suffixes is provided, with definitions and descriptions. As an informal assessment, students check their understanding by applying what they have learned about sources, citation and credibility as they conduct initial research using a graphic organizer as a guide. The teacher is instructed to return to a text students have read earlier in the unit for more practice evaluating sources, how to cite it, and its credibility.

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.

Grade 6 materials provide a design, including accountability, for how students will regularly engage in a volume of independent reading inside or outside of class. The Planning the Unit section at beginning of each unit contains a suggested reading list that corresponds to the unit theme. This list is categorized by literary and nonfiction texts, and gives the Lexile level to accommodate students’ varying abilities and interests. The first activity in Unit 1 sets up a mechanism for students to self monitor their reading progress, comprehension, and fluency. The grade-level-specific Close Reading Workshops are designed to help teachers guide students as they develop the skills necessary for close reading of a broad range of high-quality texts of increasing complexity. These models can be used to support or extend the instruction already in the SpringBoard materials and serve as models for differentiation.

Examples of how Close Reading Workshop activities support independent reading:

• Activity 1 provides guided reading instruction that emphasizes multiple readings, vocabulary development, and close-reading strategies with a complex text.
• Activity 2 gradually releases students from teacher-guided instruction and modeling to a collaborative analysis of a visual text to which students apply the skills and strategies of close reading.
• Activity 3 releases student to closely read texts independently to respond to analysis of question and to make connections to previous texts.
• Activity 4 requires students to respond to synthesis writing, presentation, or discussion prompts to demonstrate their mastery of the close-reading skills they have practiced in the workshop.

Guidelines to set a deadline to complete the independent reading are included. After students complete the assignment, they use prompts such as the following to to assess their reading: "Consider the change(s) the character(s) from your independent reading book experienced. What was significant about the change? How did the change leave an impact on the character or those around him or her?"

Throughout the units, the materials incorporate Independent Reading Links, which include opportunities for students to connect concepts in the unit to their independent reading and include prompts for students to keep responses in their reading journals and/or Reader/Writer notebooks.

Close Reading Workshops include five separate workshops. Each consists of two texts correlating with the unit topic, as well as a visual literacy component. Texts are from published authors, many who are mentioned in the appendices for CCSS. The focus of the workshops are: Informational/Literary Non-Fiction, Argumentative, Poetry, Shakespeare, and Informational/Literary Nonfiction in History/Social Studies. In these workshops, students learn how to make meaning of the three different texts, self-reflect on strategies that worked, and ask themselves how can they use what they have learned in future texts. After completing activities for each text, students complete a writing prompt that is used as formative assessment, assessing their ability to write a topic sentence, choose proper textual evidence for support, and explain the significance of evidence they have chosen. Students have four options at the end of each text that require them to choose how to assess their knowledge: they may write a synthesis of the text, participate in a debate, create a multimedia presentation, or write a reflection piece. Text complexity levels are provided for each prose text.

Literature Circles reinforce communication and collaboration, and in addition, support the independent reading process as well, as students are held accountable to their groups in that process.