3rd-5th Grade - Gateway 2

The text quality, volume of reading, and independent reading guidance in Read Side by Side partially meet expectations for indicator 2a. Materials present a broad mix of full-length novels and informational books supplemented by short “outside” texts that are somewhat aligned to the balance called for in the standards. Across the program, informational selections span scientific and technical articles, biographies/autobiographies, news/arguments, historical pieces, and research articles, while literary works include realistic and historical fiction, fantasy, legends, and poetry, demonstrating range within subgenres. Most selections are complete, long-form works with a small number of purposeful excerpts, ensuring substantial volume. Core/anchor texts are well-crafted, content-rich, and engaging, pairing vivid narratives and clear structures with knowledge-building nonfiction that incorporates timelines, primary sources, glossaries, and topic-focused features. However, some of the “outside” texts are inauthentic, simplistic in nature, and lack credibility. Teacher guidance and student accountability for independent reading are limited: students are expected to read independently within book clubs, but the materials offer few schedules, monitoring tools, or feedback routines to support consistent implementation.

• Materials somewhat reflect the balance of informational and literary texts required by the grade-level standards (50/50 in K-5), including various subgenres. Materials include a range of full texts and excerpts (including long-form and short-form texts), depending on their stated purpose. (This criterion is evidence only and not considered in scoring.)

  • The texts in Read Side by Side are primarily composed of full-text novels and informational books, as well as shorter “outside” texts related to read-aloud or book club texts. 

    • Grade 3 contains 13 informational texts and 14 literary texts, which aligns with the 50/50 split indicated in the standards at 48% informational and 52% literary. Informational texts encompass a range of genres, including scientific articles and books, technical texts, biographies, news articles, arguments, autobiographies, and research articles. Literary texts encompass a diverse range of genres, including realistic fiction, historical fiction, and legends. Three of the texts are excerpts, and the rest are long-form full texts, ensuring a substantial reading volume. 

    • Grade 4 contains 20 informational texts and 15 literary texts, which align somewhat with the 50/50 split indicated in the standards, at 57% informational and 43% literary. Informational texts encompass a range of genres, including news articles, op-eds, essays, biographies, historical articles and books, and scientific articles. Literary texts encompass a diverse range of genres, including realistic fiction, fantasy, poems, and historical fiction. One of the texts is an excerpt, while the rest are full-length texts, ensuring a substantial reading volume. 

    • Grade 5 contains 25 informational texts and 16 literary texts, which does not align with the 50/50 split indicated in the standards at 61% informational and 39% literary. Informational texts encompass a range of genres, including scientific articles, news articles, op-eds, biographies, historical articles and books, articles about the arts, and historical speeches. Literary texts encompass a diverse range of genres, including realistic fiction, historical fiction, and science fiction. Three of the texts are excerpts, and the rest are long-form full texts, ensuring a substantial reading volume.

  • Note: As part of this review, the publisher submitted documentation outlining text characteristics, including genre and subgenre designations and counts of full texts, excerpts, long-form texts, and short-form texts.

• Materials include core/anchor texts that are well-crafted, content-rich, and engaging for students at their grade level; however, the accompanying shorter texts are not of the same level of quality. 

  • The Read Side by Side text sets blend strong literary craft, rich content knowledge, and high engagement. Well-crafted narratives open with vivid language and memorable plots (e.g., moonlit predators, family “wars,” survival quests, and civil rights showdowns), feature complex and relatable characters, and employ clear structures and motifs that encourage inference and discussion. Alongside these narratives, content-rich nonfiction deepens knowledge with focused expositions, timelines, primary sources (speeches, letters, historic documents), and accessible reference features (glossaries, fact lists, habitat/behavior profiles), often clustered around compelling topics like wildlife, civil rights, the Gold Rush, railroads, natural disasters, industry, and labor. Engagement comes from varied genres and tones—humor, mystery, adventure, historical fiction, biography, and contemporary realism—plus highly relevant themes of friendship, fairness, courage, and identity. Many selections also include approachable formats for developing readers (concise pages, clear subheads, and even interactive elements like stickers), ensuring that students can enter the content while still being challenged by sophisticated ideas and language.

  • While the trade books used in Read Side by Side are well-crafted, content-rich, and engaging, many of the “outside” texts are inauthentic, simplistic in nature, and may not include credible sources. 

    • In Grade 4, Read Aloud Teacher’s Guide, Volume 4.1, Day 6, students listen to the article, “Protecting the Pets in Your Community” by Sarah Collinge, author of the Read Side by Side program, to determine whether Shiloh is being abused or neglected by Judd. While this article was written to align with the read-aloud text, Shiloh by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor, it is not an authentic text, and it is unclear where the information originated, as the article simply directs readers to visit a set of websites for more information. 

• Materials include minimal teacher guidance (including monitoring and feedback) and student accountability structures for independent reading (e.g., independent reading procedures, proposed schedule, tracking system for independent reading). (This criterion is evidence only and not considered in scoring.)

  • In each Book Club unit, students are expected to independently read and complete the day’s tasks related to their reading. However, the materials do not provide schedules or tracking systems for independent reading.

  • The optional Must Do, May Do list included with each unit has two items related to independent reading, but there is not guidance for accomplishing these tasks:

    • “Read an article that is related to the book you are reading. Complete any assignments your teacher has given to go with the article.”

    • “Visit the school or classroom library and select a book or magazine to read independently.”

  • In the Curriculum Guide for each grade, the materials state, “This stagger[ed] schedule will create some ‘open times’ throughout the year. These open times create an opportunity for self-selected reading or other language arts instruction.” There is no further guidance related to independent reading.

  • The accompanying Raising the Standards book includes optional narrative and informational text reading logs that ask students to have an adult interview them at the end of each quadrant, but there is limited guidance for when and how teachers should use these reading logs.

The text complexity analysis in the Read Side by Side materials partially meets expectations for indicator 2b. Materials include text complexity analyses and rationales for the educational purpose and placement of each core and supporting text. For both read-alouds and book clubs, the materials provide qualitative measures—levels of meaning, structure, language conventionality, and clarity, as well as knowledge demands—alongside quantitative data, such as Lexile levels when available, and brief guidance for local consideration of reader and task variables. These analyses help teachers understand the dimensions of complexity and how they align with instructional goals. Across the program, most anchor texts fall within or near the appropriate complexity range for the grade band, with a balance of slightly, moderately, and very complex texts that support both accessibility and challenge. However, some texts lack reported Lexile measures, and the reader and task guidance is generic, offering limited specificity to support instructional decision-making. 

• Accurate text complexity analysis and a rationale for educational purpose and placement in the grade level accompany core/anchor texts and a series of texts connected to them. However, the reader and task information is generic and repeated across all texts.

  • In each Read-Aloud Teacher’s Guide, the materials provide text complexity information for the read-aloud text using qualitative measures, such as levels of meaning, structure, language conventionality and clarity, and knowledge demands. The materials also provide the Lexile level and reader and task considerations. The Book Club Teacher’s Guide includes the same information for each of the book club options. The reader and task guidance is the same across all texts and grade levels, which limits teachers’ abilities to support students with specific texts and tasks.

    • In Grade 4, Book Club Teacher’s Guide, Volume 4.5, the materials provide text complexity information for The Kids Book of Canada’s Railway by Deborah Hodge. The materials provide teachers with information about levels of meaning, structure, language conventionality, and clarity, as well as knowledge demands. The Levels of Meaning section explains, “Multiple themes throughout the book increase the challenge for readers of this text. Themes include, but are not limited to, government, the economy, and the historical importance of events. These themes are generalized across people and events related to the building of the CPR.” The materials indicate that this text does not have a Lexile. Across all of the texts, the materials provide a generic statement about reader and task considerations: “These should be determined locally with reference to motivation, knowledge, and experiences as well as to the purpose and complexity of the tasks assigned and the questions posed.”

• According to quantitative and qualitative analysis and their relationship to the associated student task, core/anchor texts have the appropriate level of complexity for the grade.

  • Anchor texts generally have the appropriate level of complexity based on their text complexity analysis and the associated reader and task.

    • Grade 3

      • Quantitatively, one text exceeds the grade band Lexile range of 420L-820L, and the remainder fall within this range, although the publisher notes that the Lexile level of seven texts is unknown.

      • Qualitatively, six texts are slightly complex and 20 texts are moderately complex.

    • Grade 4

      • Quantitatively, one text exceeds the grade-level Lexile range of 740L-1010L, five fall below this range, and the remainder of the texts fall within this range, although the publisher notes that the Lexile level of 11 texts is unknown.

      • Qualitatively, 12 texts are slightly complex, nine texts are moderately complex, and one text is very complex. 

    • Grade 5

      • Quantitatively, five texts fall below the grade band Lexile range of 740L-1010L, and two texts exceed the range. The remainder of the texts fall within this range, although the publisher notes that the Lexile level of 24 of the texts is unknown.

      • Qualitatively, 21 texts are slightly complex, 17 are moderately complex, and three are very complex.

    • Note: For this review and norming to other reviews, the publisher submitted qualitative information on levels of meaning/purpose, text structure, language conventionality and clarity, and knowledge demands for each text.

The scaffolding in Read Side by Side partially meets the expectations for indicator 2c. Materials provide generic scaffolding aligned to the qualitative complexity of the texts, limiting support for students in making meaning from challenging material. While each Teacher’s Guide includes text complexity information and generic considerations for reader and task, these do not translate into targeted instructional supports tailored to the specific demands of individual texts. At the program level, Read Side by Side is designed to scaffold students’ engagement with complex texts by using read-alouds to model skills that are later applied in book clubs, with differentiated book club texts supporting access to shared topics across varied reading levels. Scaffolds that are included—such as partner reading, dyad reading, or brief mini-lessons—are broad and repeated across units and grades without clear guidance for how teachers should select or implement them based on student needs or text difficulty. Before-, during-, and after-reading supports are also limited, with few opportunities for explicit modeling or guided practice that deepen comprehension of complex structures, language, or themes. As a result, the materials do not provide sufficient, text-specific scaffolding or instructional direction to help all students access and engage meaningfully with complex texts.

• Scaffolds do not align with the qualitative complexity of the program’s texts to support students in making meaning of each text. 

  • Each Read-Aloud and Book Club Teacher’s Guide provides text complexity information that includes qualitative measures, such as levels of meaning, structure, language conventionality, and clarity, as well as knowledge demands. The materials also provide the Lexile level and reader and task considerations; however, these are generic considerations that apply across all units and grades. The materials do not provide specific scaffolds based on text complexity, although the Book Club units provide generic scaffolds within the lessons that are common across units and grades.

    • In Grade 3, Book Club Teacher’s Guide, Volume 3.3, Day 12, the lesson contains a Scaffold section, which states, “Choose which level of scaffolding from the list (least to greatest) will be most appropriate for students:

      • partner support,

      • dyad reading, and/or

      • extended mini lesson.” 

      The materials do not provide any additional guidance about how to determine which of those options to choose or how to use these scaffolds to support students in making meaning of the text.

• Materials include some scaffolds for before, during, and after engaging with a complex text.

  • The Read Side by Side program itself is designed to provide scaffolds for students to engage with complex texts. At the program level, the Read-Aloud unit serves as a scaffold for the Book Club unit, as students first practice the skills being taught in the Read-Aloud, then apply them in their Book Clubs. Many of the Book Club units also provide differentiated texts to allow students of different reading levels to engage in a similar topic.

  • Within the texts themselves, the materials provide more limited scaffolding for students before or after engaging with complex texts and limited scaffolding during reading. These scaffolds do not change across the year or across grades.

    • In Grade 5, Read-Aloud Teacher’s Guide, Volume 5.1, Day 12, the teacher instructs students that “good readers pay attention to the author’s craft. The author’s craft will also help the reader identify the author’s message.” During the read-aloud, the teacher stops at various points to model using the lesson’s sentence stem, then students turn and talk using the same stem. During the Stretch It portion of the lesson, the teacher directs students to discuss, “Based on what we know about nature, who or what do you think is going to win this battle?” Students then collect evidence around the Line of Thinking “Nature is more powerful than man” and discuss what evidence they can find from the text to support this. While these tasks are worthwhile for students to engage in, the scaffolding for students to make meaning of the text is limited.

• Materials include minimal teacher guidance on how to enact each scaffold based on student needs.

  • The materials provide only generic scaffolds for students, lacking guidance for teachers on how to implement them.

The Read Side by Side program partially meets the expectations for indicator 2d by organizing text sets around cohesive, grade-appropriate themes that build knowledge over time. Text sets in the materials are organized around broad, grade-appropriate themes that connect to social studies topics, allowing for some cohesion across reading experiences. Each year features an overarching theme and social studies focus, and the paired Read-Aloud and Book Club texts within units are typically linked by topic, theme, or genre. However, these connections are often implicit rather than intentionally designed to build cumulative knowledge. While students encounter multiple texts that share related ideas—such as survival, conflict, or exploration—the materials provide little explicit guidance for teachers or students to synthesize learning or deepen understanding across texts. As a result, while the text sets create thematic continuity and exposure to varied genres, they inconsistently build disciplinary or conceptual knowledge and offer limited opportunities for developing academic vocabulary and content understanding through purposeful text-to-text integration.

• Text sets are organized around a grade-appropriate topic or theme. 

  • While the Read-Aloud and Book Club texts are generally related through topic, theme, or genre, this text organization is not necessarily designed to build knowledge. Each grade-level Curriculum Guide indicates the year-long theme and social studies focus, but there is little guidance provided on developing this knowledge across units or grades. Any nuance related to these topics and themes is implied and not explicitly addressed in the materials.

    • In Grade 5, the Curriculum Guide indicates that the year-long theme is “surviving hardships” and the social studies connection is “The American Revolution, Industrial Revolution, and slavery.” In the Read-Aloud Teacher’s Guide, Volume 5.1, students listen to Earthquake Terror by Peg Kehret, a realistic fiction title. In the accompanying Book Club unit, students have the option of reading I Survived Hurricane Katrina, 2005 by Lauren Tarshis, Kensuke’s Kingdom by Michael Morpurgo, or Hatchet by Gary Paulsen. The materials state, “All three books are realistic fiction and share the subject of survival that is central to Earthquake Terror.” The Read-Aloud unit contains three “outside texts” that are related to the topic of earthquakes/natural disasters. The explicit connections across texts in the Read-Aloud and Book Club units focus more on genre than on building knowledge about the topic/theme, as the knowledge building is implied rather than stated explicitly for teachers and students. 

• Text set organization provides opportunities for students to address facets of the same topic or theme over an extended period (e.g., a unit, module), enabling the development of deeper knowledge. Text sets inconsistently build knowledge across some topics in social studies (including history), science, the arts, and literature, limiting students’ exposure to academic vocabulary, content knowledge, and complex syntax.

  • Students read multiple novels over the course of the Read-Aloud and Book Club units, along with additional “outside texts” related to the topic. All the texts across a year are tied to a year-long theme and social studies focus, which allows students to learn about a topic from various facets, but also limits the topics students can learn about within a year. The connection between the year-long themes and texts is mostly implied rather than explicitly stated, which limits students’ exposure to academic vocabulary, content knowledge, and complex syntax.

    • In Grade 3, the year-long theme is “Resolving conflicts at home, at school, and in the community,” and the social studies focus is the Civil Rights movement.

    • In Grade 4, the year-long theme is “A journey; both a personal journey and a literal journey,” and the social studies focus is “Westward expansion and the pioneering spirit.”

    • In Grade 5, the year-long theme is “Surviving hardships,” and the social studies focus is “The American Revolution, Industrial Revolution, and slavery.”

The questions, tasks, and assignments in Read Side by Side’s materials partially meet expectations for indicator 2g. Materials provide a consistent structure for engaging students in read-alouds and book clubs through the C.I.A. (Collect, Interpret, Apply) approach, which emphasizes gathering key details, interpreting meaning, and connecting to broader themes. This structure offers students multiple modes for demonstrating understanding, including speaking and writing. Lessons frequently include teacher modeling of thinking processes and prompts for collaborative discussion, such as turn-and-talk routines and guided questions that encourage students to infer character traits or analyze setting details. However, while students participate in these meaning-making discussions and written responses, many of the teacher questions are skills-based rather than specific to individual texts, limiting the extent to which they require students to make meaning from the particular text under study. Similarly, while the materials imply that rereading and close reading will occur within the process of collecting critical information, explicit teacher prompts and scaffolds for close analysis are infrequent. As a result, the materials somewhat support students in making meaning through text-based questions and tasks, but opportunities for deeper, text-specific analysis are not consistently present across lessons. 

• Materials provide opportunities to support students in making meaning of the texts being studied through text-based questions and tasks in varying formats (i.e. speaking, writing, etc).

  • The Read Side by Side program follows a structured format for reading chapter books, called the C.I.A. Approach. In the Read-Aloud Teacher’s Guide, Get to Know the C.I.A. Approach, the materials indicate that “The acronym C.I.A. stands for collect critical information, interpret the text, and apply to your life. Readers collect critical information in the first quadrant of the text, interpret this information in the second and third quadrants, and finally, in the fourth quadrant, consider how the author’s message can be applied to one’s life.” While the teacher models thinking aloud during read-alouds and asks questions, the questions are not necessarily specific to any text and are often skills-based, which may not support students in making meaning of the text they are currently reading. 

    • In Grade 3, Read-Aloud Teacher’s Guide, Volume 3.2, Day 12, students think more deeply about the characters in The War with Grandpa by Robert Kimmel Smith. The teacher models finding clues about the main character based on his actions, words, and feelings. Students use the turn and talk stem, “When the book said _______, I was thinking ______. This helps me understand _______.” Students then record the character’s actions, words, and feelings, as well as the character traits that those might infer. 

    • In Grade 4, Read-Aloud Teacher’s Guide, Volume 4.4, Day 4, the teacher supports students through guided practice about using information from outside texts. During the read-aloud, students respond to these types of questions:

      • “We just learned about the journey down the Yukon River. What did you think was important here?”

      • “We just learned about the lives of the gold-seekers. What did you think was important here?”

      The optional Stretch It question asks students to discuss the question, “How do you think building this background knowledge prior to reading will help you as you read Children of the Gold Rush?”

    • In Grade 5, Read-Aloud Teacher’s Guide, Volume 5.1, Day 4, students sketch a setting map after the teacher models “to help them visualize where and when the story takes place.” Throughout the lesson, the teacher models thinking aloud about the setting of the text, Earthquake Terror by Peg Kehret. During students’ book club time on the same day, they focus on details related to the setting and record that information in their notebooks in the Collect Information part of the C.I.A. Approach. 

• Materials include some text-based questions and tasks that require students to closely read and/or re-read complex parts of texts to deepen their analysis and understanding.

  • In the C.I.A. Approach, the materials indicate that students learn to read more slowly in the book’s exposition and to gather the critical key ideas and details. In the Collect Critical Information part of the process, the materials indicate that “In this quadrant, readers read more slowly and often reread in order to monitor their comprehension.” While it is implied that students will need to closely read and reread to complete the lessons’ associated tasks, the materials provide limited prompts for close reading and rereading to deepen analysis and understanding. In the Interpret part of the process, the materials indicate, “In this quadrant, readers increase their speed even more and rarely, if ever, reread,” which can make deep analysis challenging. 

    • In Grade 5, Book Club Teacher’s Guide, Volume 5.2, Days 5-6, the materials prompt teachers to say, “Now turn to page 12 in your book club notebooks. Today you will be keeping track of the important events in quadrant 1 of your stories. Some of the important events of your stories have already been revealed. You will begin your lists by recalling those important events, referring back to your texts and rereading as needed.”

 The text analysis opportunities in Read Side by Side partially meet expectations for indicator 2h. Materials provide a process for supporting students in analyzing key ideas and details, craft and structure, and the integration of knowledge and ideas through the C.I.A. (Collect, Interpret, Apply) Approach. This framework sequences students’ engagement with texts, beginning with literal comprehension of key details, progressing to inferential thinking about the author’s craft and message, and culminating in synthesis and application. Lessons include teacher modeling, guided discussion, and opportunities for students to record, discuss, and write about important textual evidence, helping them make meaning from what they read. However, while the process aligns broadly to the intent of the standards, the materials do not consistently reference or directly connect to specific grade-level expectations, and text-specific guidance for analyzing relationships among ideas or author choices is sometimes limited. 

• Materials provide some opportunities for students to analyze key ideas and details (according to grade-level standards) within individual texts and across multiple texts to support students in making meaning.

  • In the C.I.A. Approach, the materials indicate that the Collect step in the process addresses the key ideas and details standards, encompassed by the power standard, “The student has a literal understanding of the key ideas and details and can summarize the text.” The specific grade level standards are not explicitly addressed.

    • In Grade 4, Read-Aloud Teacher’s Guide, Volume 4.1, Day 6, students engage in a read-aloud of a text related to Shiloh by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor. During the Guided Practice section of the lesson, the teacher stops after certain sections of the text and asks students, “What important details did you read about in this section of the text?” Students then turn and talk with a partner using the sentence stem, “ When the article said ______. I thought this was an important detail because ______. This makes me think ________.” In the accompanying book club lesson, students work on keeping a list of important events in their book club notebooks.

• Materials provide some opportunities for students to analyze craft and structure (according to grade-level standards) within individual texts and across multiple texts to support students in making meaning.

  • In the C.I.A. Approach, the materials indicate that the Interpret step in the process addresses the craft and structure standards, encompassed by the power standard, “The student has an inferential understanding of the ideas in the text, including key vocabulary, character traits/feelings/motives, the author’s craft, and the author’s message/theme.” The specific grade level standards are not explicitly addressed. 

    • In Grade 3, Book Club Teacher’s Guide, Volume 3.5, Day 14, students learn that “good readers continue to pay attention to the author’s craft. Authors use their craft purposefully to reveal their messages.” Based on the book club selection students are reading, the teacher assigns specific aspects of author’s craft for students to study and discuss, including repetition, figurative language, and the characters’ traits. The lesson ends with a discussion of the question, “Based on the author’s craft, what do you think the author might be telling you?”

• Materials provide some opportunities for students to analyze the integration of knowledge and ideas (according to grade-level standards) within individual texts and across multiple texts to support students in deepening their understanding on a topic.

  • In the C.I.A. Approach, the materials indicate that the Apply step in the process addresses the integration of knowledge standards, encompassed by the power standard, “The student builds knowledge while reading and connects this knowledge to other sources.” The specific grade level standards are not explicitly addressed.

    • In Grade 5, Book Club Teacher’s Guide, Volume 5.3, Days 27-28, students write an opinion piece about the prompt, “Did Laurie Halse Anderson create a setting and plot that are consistent with historical facts when she wrote the book Chains?” In their responses, students should use evidence from Chains and American Revolution by Stuart Murray.

The speaking and listening protocols and teacher guidance in Read Side by Side’s materials partially meet the expectations for indicator 2i. The materials include some structures to support meaningful discussion grounded in text. While Turn and Talk routines with sentence stems provide a predictable opportunity for students to share initial thinking, these exchanges are brief and heavily teacher-directed, with little variation or extension beyond the scripted prompts. The book, Raising the Standards, provides some additional guidance on how to use the sentence stems in reciprocal conversations, which can allow for more in-depth discussions. More extended discussions, such as book clubs, lack consistent protocols or clear expectations for how students should engage with peers to build shared understanding. Teacher materials provide limited guidance for facilitating, monitoring, or providing feedback during discussions, which limits the development of students’ speaking and listening skills over time. 

• Materials include some structured protocols that supports students in participating in discussions. These discussions are sometimes surface-level and don’t always require using both background knowledge and their interpretation of the text to build upon each other’s understanding.

  • During each lesson, students engage in a Turn and Talk routine using provided sentence stems. The teacher assigns students a Turn and Talk partner that lasts for the duration of the unit. The materials provide sentence stems for student conversations during each lesson. In the Get Ready for Turn and Talk section of each Read-Aloud Teacher’s Guide, the materials explain, “Turn and talk stems set up a deliberate structure for collaborative conversations. These stems help students get started with their thinking and support the use of academic language.” In Raising the Standards, the materials explain that during the Turn and Talk routine, students will use the sentence stems to engage in reciproical conversations that support them in building on one another’s thinking. After one of the students shares their initial thinking using the sentence stem, the other student in the partnership is supposed to respond using a reciprocal conversation stem:

    • “I agree/disagree with you because _____.

    • I also think ____.

    • It sounds like you are saying ____.”

    While the materials provide sentence stems to support students’ discussions, students are not explicitly directed to engage in reciprocal conversations within the daily lesson, which could serve to keep these at a surface-level and may not always require students to elaborate or build on each other’s interpretations of the text.

    • In Grade 4, Read-Aloud Teacher’s Guide, Volume 4.1, Day 18, the teacher stops during the read-aloud of Shiloh by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor and asks students, “What can you infer about Marty’s feelings?” The teacher then directs students to “Turn and talk to your partners using this stem: When the book said ______, I was thinking _______ because _______. This helps me understand ________.”

  • Students also meet daily with their book clubs for quick discussions. The more formal book club meetings include expectations for how students will engage with one another and discussion questions that are facilitated by the teacher, but not a structured protocol for students to engage with one another to interpret the text. Raising the Standards provides some additional information for facilitating book clubs, but guidance for teachers to enact the book club conversations is implied within the daily lessons rather than explicity stated.

    • In Grade 3, Book Club Teacher’s Guide, Volume 3.2, Days 14-15, the materials direct teachers to remind students of the expectations during book club meetings and provide opening discussion questions about each of the book club options. The materials direct teachers to “Have 2-3 students share their responses to each of these questions. Ask a student to respond to another student before sharing his or her own thinking. As you move through the series of questions, make sure each student gets a turn to talk.”

    • In Grade 5, Book Club Teacher’s Guide, Volume 5.4, Day 22, during the Share-out section of the lesson, the materials say, “At the beginning of the share-out time, give students 5 minutes to compare notes and receive help from their partners. Then move into a quick, whole-class discussion.” The class discusses the question, “What do you predict will happen next?” However, there is no additional guidance for how this discussion should be structured.

  • Some lessons include a Stretch It discussion prompt, though there is limited guidance for how teachers should facilitate this discussion.

    • In Grade 4, Read-Aloud Teacher’s Guide, Volume 4.1, Day 4, in the Stretch It section of the lessons, the materials provide a prompt for discussion: “What can you conclude about Marty’s circumstance?” This section of the lesson provides not other guidance to teachers on facilitating this discussion other than “Model adding this conclusion to the bottom of the setting clues list.”

• Speaking and listening instruction includes limited facilitation, monitoring, and feedback guidance for teachers.

  • Aside from instructions for establishing Turn and Talk partnerships and using sentence stems, the materials offer minimal guidance to help teachers facilitate, monitor, or give feedback during student discussions.

    • In Grade 3, Read-Aloud Teacher’s Guide, Volume 3.2, Day 14, the materials provide the Turn and Talk sentence stem, “When the book said ______, I was thinking Peter/Grandpa Jack believes ______. This helps me understand _______.” The materials indicate when the teacher should instruct students to use this stem, but do not provide any additional guidance on monitoring these partner discussions or offering feedback.

  • The Read-Aloud Teacher’s Guide for each unit includes “Suggestions for Supporting Guided Practice,” which provides broad guidance for teachers to engage with students during their Turn and Talk conversations. The materials direct teachers: “As you listen in on turn and talk conversations, use the outline below to help you decide when to:

    • Provide a scaffold

    • Return to teacher modeling

    • Provide coaching

    • Stretch students’ conversations”

    The materials then go on to provide four different scenarios that teachers might observe when students are having a conversation and indicate which of the instructional decisions above teachers may make based on their observation. While the materials do provide this guidance, it is generic and not specific to any particular text or task.

  • The accompanying Assessment and Intervention Guide includes a brief section on evaluating students’ oral responses, primarily for the purpose of grading and report cards, rather than providing feedback to students.

The student practice opportunities for evidence-based discussions partially meet the expectations for indicator 2j. The materials include some opportunities for students to engage in collaborative, evidence-based discussions about texts. While Turn and Talk routines during read-alouds encourage students to share ideas using provided sentence stems, these prompts only occasionally direct students to reference textual evidence and often focus on surface-level comprehension. Discussion opportunities in book clubs are more teacher-directed and typically rely on opinion- or inference-based questions that do not require students to substantiate their thinking with evidence from the text. Although the materials include general expectations for responding to peers and considering others’ perspectives, they lack structured routines or explicit teacher guidance to facilitate deeper intellectual engagement. As a result, students have some opportunities to discuss texts and listen to their peers’ ideas, but the design and support provided may not foster meaningful, evidence-based discourse.

• Materials provide some opportunities for students to engage in collaborative conversations about the text being read/read-aloud, which require them to utilize, apply, and incorporate evidence from texts and/or sources. 

  • During each Read-Aloud lesson, the materials provide opportunities for students to turn and talk using the provided sentence stems during the Guided Practice section. The sentence stems are based on comprehension skills, but they generally require students to use evidence from the text, even if this is not explicitly stated. 

    • In Grade 4, Read-Aloud Teacher’s Guide, Volume 4.2, Day 21, during the read-aloud, the materials direct the teacher to ask, “What new evidence can we add to support our line of thinking?” The teacher instructs students to use this sentence stem during their Turn and Talk: “When the book said ______, this supported my line of thinking. William followed the Code of Chivalry when he ______. This proves he is _______.”

  • During the formal book club meetings, the materials provide a set of questions that the teacher can ask each book club, though these are teacher-directed and require the teacher to facilitate each book club discussion. These questions do not always require students to use textual evidence to support their thinking.

    • In Grade 3, Book Club Teacher’s Guide, Volume 3.3 Days 13-14, the materials provide the following questions for the I Am Rosa Parks book club: 

      • “Do you agree or disagree with the author that Rosa Parks is an important person to know about? Why or why not?

      • What illustration do you think best communicates the author’s message that Rosa Parks is an important person to know about? Why?

      • How do you think Rosa Parks felt when she was arrested and fingerprinted? Why?”

      These questions do not require students to use evidence from the text to support their thinking during the book club discussion.

• Materials provide some opportunities for students to consider others’ perspectives and engage in intellectual discourse about texts and topics they are reading (or read aloud).

  • The materials encourage students to consider others’ perspectives and include language for that in the book club expectations; however, there are no structured routines or guidance for doing so. The expectations do not require students to move beyond surface-level considerations of others’ perspectives.

    • In Grade 5, Book Club Teacher’s Guide, Volume 5.5, Days 15-16, the materials direct teachers to remind students of the book club expectations, which include:

      • “Participate by both sharing with and listening to group members.

      • Respond to another’s thinking before sharing your own.

      • When you respond to another person’s thinking, please use one of our response stems:

        • I agree with you because…

        • I disagree with you because…”

      These book club expectations are repetitive in each unit and grade level, and do not specify how students should intellectually engage with others’ perspectives on the material they are reading.

  • In Raising the Standards, the materials explain that during the Turn and Talk routine, students will use the sentence stems to engage in reciproical conversations that support them in building on one another’s thinking. After one of the students shares their initial thinking using the sentence stem, the other student in the partnership is supposed to respond using a reciprocal conversation stem:

    • “I agree/disagree with you because _____.

    • I also think ____.

    • It sounds like you are saying ____.”

    While the materials provide sentence stems to support students’ discussions, students are not explicitly directed to engage in reciprocal conversations within the daily lesson, which could serve to keep these at a surface-level and may not always require students to elaborate or build on each other’s interpretations of the text.

Teacher guidance for explicit vocabulary instruction in Read Side by Side’s materials partially meets expectations for indicator 2k. Materials include a consistent but limited structure for introducing key vocabulary within the context of the texts. The Vocabulary Mini-Lesson Routine provides a predictable framework for exploring a single word or concept through morphemic analysis, context clues, and discussion; however, implementation relies heavily on the teacher’s interpretation. While the routine prompts students to consider meaning, opposites, and usage, it lacks explicit guidance for how to connect vocabulary instruction to the text itself or extend word learning throughout reading, discussion, and writing tasks. The accompanying resources, such as the Vocabulary Handbook, offer minimal support for teachers in applying morphemic analysis or ensuring multiple exposures to target words. As a result, students have limited opportunities to engage meaningfully with essential academic and text-based vocabulary, and the materials do not provide sufficient scaffolding for teachers to reinforce or deepen vocabulary acquisition across lessons and contexts.

• Materials include one structured and explicit practice for introducing key vocabulary words and independent word-learning strategies within the context of the texts (student-friendly definitions, analyzing morphemes, etymology, word maps, and discussion of word relationships/shades of meaning, dictionary skills, context clues). 

  • At the beginning of every Read-Aloud lesson, the materials include a vocabulary word or concept that is relevant to the text being read. Sometimes the words come directly from the text, while at other times, the vocabulary words are inferred from it. The Vocabulary Mini-Lesson Routine consists of the following steps:

    • Introduce and highlight morphemes.

    • Read the context(s)of the word. Highlight any clues that will help the reader infer the meaning.

    • Turn and talk: What does the word _______mean?

    • Share-out and add to chart.

    • Brainstorm other contexts for this word.

    • Turn and talk: What are opposites of this word?

    • Share-out and add to chart.

    • I will remember this word…

    • Link…

    Students complete a graphic organizer for each word during the mini-lesson. The Vocabulary Mini-Lesson Routine is a template for teachers to use, but teacher guidance for enacting the routine is limited.

    • In Grade 3, Read-Aloud Teacher’s Guide, Volume 3.3, Day 8, the materials indicate that the vocabulary word for the lesson is community and provide a definition and a note that the word is derived from the base word common. Teachers are expected to guide students through the Vocabulary Routine Mini-Lesson, but there is no further guidance provided.

• Attention is paid to vocabulary essential to understanding the text and high-utility academic words. Materials provide limited exposures to key vocabulary within (i.e., before, during, after reading) and across texts.

  • The accompanying book, Raising the Standards Through Chapter Books by Sarah Collinge, indicates that “The acquisition of vocabulary will be reinforced through both oral discussion and writing. Students will be held accountable to practice new vocabulary when discussing the text and when writing notes and summaries. Teachers will reinforce the use of new vocabulary through dialogue with students.” While the materials introduce a relevant word or concept during the Vocabulary Mini-Lesson Routine, they do not always indicate where those words appear within the text or provide explicit prompts for students to use the words in discussions and writing. Some of the vocabulary words are inferred from the text rather than being words that students would encounter directly. Each Read-Aloud Teacher’s Guide contains highlighting directions for teachers to annotate their books, including relevant vocabulary, but those highlighted words are not always indicated as stopping points within the lessons themselves.

    • In Grade 5, Read-Aloud Teacher’s Guide, Volume 5.5, Day 27, the vocabulary word is indulge. The teacher guides students through the Vocabulary Mini-Lesson Routine, but the materials do not prompt the teacher to stop at the location of the word in the text, nor do they encourage students to use the word during the accompanying book club meeting.

The on-demand and process writing opportunities in Read Side by Side’s materials partially meet expectations for indicator 2o. Materials include a mix of on-demand and process writing opportunities that allow students to write routinely and across extended periods of time. Short, on-demand writing tasks are embedded throughout lessons, providing students with practice in summarizing, synthesizing, or evaluating what they have read. Each unit also includes process writing components connected to the texts and themes explored in the Read-Aloud and Book Club, guiding students through stages of planning, drafting, revising, editing, and publishing a related piece. These units are included in the scope and sequence, but the materials imply they are optional based on teacher discretion. While these process writing tasks are appropriately aligned to the purpose, genre, or topic of the unit’s reading, the overall balance of writing types is not aligned with the distributions outlined in the standards, with a heavy emphasis on narrative writing. 

• Materials include a mix of grade-appropriate on-demand and process writing; however, the materials lack clarity about whether the process writing units are optional or required parts of the curriculum.

  • Students have opportunities to engage in brief writing activities throughout the Read-Aloud and Book Club sections of each lesson. Each unit culminates in two on-demand writing pieces that synthesize and evaluate the learning. Students’ writing opportunities are similar across each unit and grade level, which limits the variety of writing tasks students encounter.

    • In Grade 5, Volume 5.1, Read-Aloud Teacher’s Guide, Day 9, students write a retell summary using the most important events from the first quadrant of the book, Earthquake Terror by Peg Kehret. In Days 7-8 of the Book Club, students use what they learned about retell summaries in the Read-Aloud to write a new retell summary about their book club book. On Day 22 of the Read-Aloud, students write a Synthesis Summary, where they summarize the most important events of the entire book. On Day 24, students participate in an on-demand Evaluation Writing activity, where they evaluate the author’s message.

  • The materials also include process writing units available online only that are related to each Read-Aloud and Book Club unit. These units are included in the scope and sequence, but the materials imply they are optional based on teacher discretion.

    • In Grade 3, Volume 3.2, students listen to The War with Grandpa by Robert Kimmel Smith, a realistic fiction text, and read other realistic fiction options during the Book Club. In the accompanying writing unit, students write a personal narrative. The lessons take students through planning, drafting, revising and editing, and publishing their personal narratives.

• Materials do not reflect the distribution indicated by the standards for process writing (K–5 30/35/35 persuade/explain/convey experience). (This criterion is evidence only and not considered in scoring.)

  • Across Grades 3-5, the process writing distribution in Read Side by Side is not aligned with what is indicated in the standards. The process writing units are only available online. These units are included in the scope and sequence, but the materials imply they are optional based on teacher discretion.

    • In Grade 3, the distribution of process writing is 25% to persuade, 25% to explain, and 50% to convey experience.

    • In Grade 4, the distribution of process writing is 20% to persuade, 20% to explain, and 60% to convey experience.

    • In Grade 5, the distribution of process writing is 40% to persuade, 0% to explain, and 60% to convey experience.

• Writing opportunities are appropriately aligned to the purpose, genre, and/or topic of the unit’s reading. 

  • Throughout the Read-Aloud and Book Club, students write about what they read. The process writing opportunities are aligned to the books students engage with during the Read-Aloud and Book Club, topically or through genre.

    • In Grade 4, Volume 4.3, students listen to the biography Streams to the River, River to the Sea by Scott O’Dell and read the related nonfiction book Going Along with Lewis and Clark by Barbara Fifer. In the accompanying optional writing unit, students write historical fiction using the books they have been reading. Students’ writing is in response to this prompt, “Write a series of four diary entries written from the perspective of one of the Corp of Discovery members or tribe members from the book Streams to the River. Each diary entry should tell about one or more important events and reveal the thoughts and feelings of the narrator.”

The opportunities for students to practice the writing processes in Read Side by Side partially meet expectations for indicator 2q. Materials provide multiple opportunities for students to plan their writing through the use of graphic organizers that help them generate and organize ideas before drafting. Students use these tools to structure both longer compositions and shorter, on-demand writing pieces, allowing for some consistency in the planning process. Opportunities for drafting are also included; however, the materials offer little explicit guidance to support students as they move from planning to writing complete drafts. Lessons often direct students simply to “draft” sections of their writing, without scaffolds, examples, or reminders of key elements of effective writing. While revising and editing are addressed in each unit, instruction focuses narrowly on a limited set of skills, such as punctuation or transition words, rather than providing sustained attention to a broad range of grade-appropriate strategies for improving clarity, organization, and style. Students have some opportunities to publish their work, including through digital means, but these tasks rely on teacher discretion and are not supported with detailed guidance or tools for the meaningful use of technology in the writing process. While the materials do include some opportunities for students to engage in parts of the writing process, the grade-level Curriculum Guides imply that the dedicated writing units are optional and only available online. 

• Materials include multiple opportunities for students to plan writing (e.g., with graphic organizers).

  • Within each writing unit, students have an opportunity to plan their writing using a graphic organizer.

    • In Grade 5, Volume 5.2, the Persuasive Writing Unit for Holes, Day 1, students brainstorm ideas for the writing prompt, “Persuade others to learn basic survival skills,” and then plan their persuasive writing piece using a graphic organizer based on the quadrant system used in the reading units.

  • Students also have opportunities to use graphic organizers to plan their shorter, on-demand writing pieces.

    • In Grade 4, Volume 4.4, Read-Aloud Teacher’s Guide, Day 11, students write a Retell Summary using the Retell Summary Frame, a graphic organizer that supports students in including an introduction sentence, body, and conclusion.

• Materials include multiple opportunities for students to draft their writing. 

  • Within the writing units, students have opportunities to draft their writing, but the guidance to students to draft their writing pieces is very limited.

    • In Grade 3, Volume 3.5, Realistic Fiction Writing Unit for Maniac Magee, Day 5, after the teacher models drafting quadrant 1 of the realistic fiction story based on the prompt, “Write about a character who performs one or more amazing feats,” the guidance for students includes, “Give students time to draft quadrant 1 of their book. Then, give time for partners to share writing and receive feedback.” There is no further guidance for students or teachers.

• Materials include some opportunities for students to revise and edit their writing with grade-appropriate strategies and tools.

  • Each writing unit includes one to two revising and editing lessons; however, across Grades 3-5, the revising and editing lessons rarely focus on anything outside of using and punctuating dialogue, using transition words, showing the passage of time, and capitalizing proper nouns, limiting students’ ability to practice revising and editing a range of grade-level skills.

    • In Grade 4, Volume 4.3, Historical Fiction Writing Unit for Streams to the River, River to the Sea, Day 9, after the teacher models, students “revise their own stories to include transitions that show the passage of time. Then, give time for partners to share their dialogue and receive feedback.” In the next lesson, students revise their writing to include figures of speech, but there is no guidance for the teacher or students beyond, “Give students time to revise their own stories by adding figures of speech. Then, give time for partners to share these examples of figures of speech.”

• Materials include some opportunities for students to use technology to produce and publish writing. 

  • Each writing unit concludes with an opportunity for students to publish and share their writing, and it is up to the teacher’s discretion whether the writing piece is published using technology.

    • In Grade 3, Volume 3.4, Expository Writing for Glory Be, Days 12-15, students publish and share their writing. The materials direct teachers to “Discuss how writing will be published—handwritten, typed, or other. Let them know when and how their essays will be shared with the class.” Ideas for sharing their writing include:

      • “read essays aloud to classmates, 

      • read essays aloud to another class, 

      • make essays available for others to read (in the classroom, library, hallway bulletin board or other); and

      • take essays home to share with family.”

The opportunities for students to practice evidence-based writing in Read Side by Side partially meet expectations for indicator 2r. Materials provide some writing opportunities that require students to use details and examples from texts to explain explicit ideas or make inferences, as well as opportunities to develop opinions and analyses supported by evidence. On-demand writing tasks embedded throughout the Read-Aloud lessons prompt students to organize their thinking using structured frames that often direct them to reference textual evidence. These supports help students recall key information, identify relationships such as cause and effect, and form opinions based on what they have read. However, writing tasks do not consistently emphasize the use of evidence from the text itself, with some prompts encouraging students to rely on personal experiences or outside sources instead. As a result, while the materials include some opportunities for evidence-based written analysis, expectations for using textual evidence are applied inconsistently across lessons.

• Materials provide some writing opportunities that require students to refer to details and examples in a text when explaining what the text says explicitly and when drawing inferences from the text. Materials provide some writing opportunities focused on students’ recall or analysis of information to develop opinions from reading closely and working with evidence from texts and sources. 

  • Throughout the Read-Aloud sections of each unit, students have opportunities to engage in on-demand writing based on what they are reading. In these writing opportunities, the materials provide a frame to help students organize their writing, which generally requires students to use information from the text they are reading. However, some writing opportunities require students to use evidence from outside the text, such as from their own lives.

    • In Grade 3, Volume 3.3, Read-Aloud Teacher’s Guide, students engage in an opinion writing activity about Martin Luther King, Jr. by Rob Lloyd Jones. Students explain why they believe “the Montgomery Bus Boycott was the right or wrong solution to the problem of the unfair treatment of blacks on city buses.” The Problem/Solution/Opinion Frame asks students to “Give evidence that supports your opinion. (Evidence should come from the text.)”

    • In Grade 4, Volume 4.5, Read-Aloud Teacher’s Guide, Day 24, students engage in a reflection writing activity about Aurore of the Yukon by Keith Halliday. Students reflect on the author’s message in this writing piece. The Evaluation Paragraph Frame asks students to “Tell whether you agree or disagree with the author’s message. Give strong evidence that supports your opinion. (Evidence should come from an outside text or your own life.)”

    • In Grade 5, Volume 5.4, Read-Aloud Teacher’s Guide, Day 3, students engage in a cause-and-effect writing activity about Kids at Work by Russell Freedman. Students write about the causes and effects of the Industrial Revolution, and the Cause and Effect Frame asks students to “Describe several results of the one major event. Include some detail.”

The summative assessment guidance in Read Side by Side partially meets expectations for indicator 2v. Culminating tasks are consistently present at the end of each unit and are aligned to the unit’s central text and theme, providing students with a predictable opportunity to demonstrate comprehension and written expression. These summative tasks typically take the form of a single paragraph written with the support of a provided frame, such as a synthesis summary, reflection, or evaluation. While these tasks allow students to demonstrate an understanding of the text and practice skills developed throughout the unit, they focus narrowly on written responses and do not require students to integrate multiple literacy skills, such as speaking, listening, or extended writing. Instructional routines leading up to these assessments provide opportunities for students to practice related writing structures and collect supporting evidence, ensuring they are well-prepared for the final task. However, the uniformity of the culminating tasks limits the depth and range of student assessment opportunities, and the generic assessment tools included in the materials provide minimal guidance for teachers to evaluate student performance comprehensively.

• Culminating tasks/summative assessments are evident in each unit/module and align to the unit’s/module’s topic or theme. Culminating tasks/summative assessments provide students with the opportunity to demonstrate the knowledge and skills acquired throughout the unit/module, but do not integrate multiple literacy skills (reading, writing, speaking, listening).

  • Both the Read-Aloud and Book Club units culminate in a writing piece where students write about the entire book, using a paragraph frame to guide their writing. These paragraph writing opportunities range from synthesis summaries to evaluative pieces to reflections. These writing pieces are about the books they have read in the read-aloud and book club, but they do not demonstrate a range of literacy skills, as this culminating task is similar across all units and grades.

    • In Grade 3, Volume 3.3, Book Club Teacher’s Guide, Days 23-24, students write a Synthesis Summary. The materials indicate, “In this lesson…you will remind students that after reading, good readers synthesize the entire text by writing a synthesis summary. Summarizing is more rigorous here than at the end of quadrant 1, as students are being asked to synthesize a much larger portion of the text. Students will use a frame very similar to the retell summary frame. This frame requires students to retell only the most important events, limiting the amount of detail used to describe these events. When summarizing the entire book, it is important to include the most important event–the turning point. Students should be expected to produce quality work.”

• Materials provide opportunities to support students in gaining the knowledge and skills needed to complete the culminating tasks/summative assessments.

  • Students have opportunities to practice writing that is similar to the culminating writing tasks they complete at the end of the unit. Often, the paragraph frames that students use to guide their writing throughout the unit are similar to the frame they use for the culminating task. Students also take various types of notes throughout the unit, and the materials prompt teachers to encourage students to use this information in their culminating writing piece.

    • In Grade 4, Volume 4.4, Read-Aloud Teacher’s Guide, Day 24, students write an evaluation paragraph about the author’s message in Children of the Gold Rush by Claire Rudolf Murphy and Jane G. Haigh using the Evaluation Paragraph Frame. On Day 10, students learn about and find evidence to support their thinking about what the author’s message might be. On Day 11, students write a Retell Summary about the first quadrant of the book using the Retell Summary Frame. On Day 23, students continue looking for evidence related to the author’s message in preparation for the culminating task.

• Materials include some guidance that supports the teacher in determining and evaluating student performance on the culminating tasks/summative assessments in the program. 

  • The Assessment and Intervention Guide offers generic checklists, holistic rubrics, and single-point rubrics that teachers can select to use in assessing students’ culminating writing tasks. The guide also offers some example student writing pieces and how they might be scored using each type of evaluation method, leaving the use of these evaluation tools up to the teacher’s discretion.