Kindergarten - Gateway 1

The instructional materials reviewed for Ready Kindergarten meet the expectations for assessing grade-level content. The program provides Mid-Unit Assessments and Unit Assessments online for each unit. There are two versions (Form A and Form B) of all assessments for each of the seven units.

Mid-Unit and Unit Assessments contain grade-level content questions. Examples of questions include the following:

• Unit 2 Unit Assessment Form A Problem 3 asks “How many shovels?” and “Draw one pail (picture of a pail) for each shovel.” (K.CC.5)
• For Unit 4 Mid-Unit Assessment Form B Problem 1 students are asked to solve 2 + 2 and are given pictures of pigs to help solve the equation. (K.OA.5)

Overall, assessment items are aligned to Kindergarten standards.

The instructional materials reviewed for Ready Kindergarten meet the expectation for spending the majority of class time on the major clusters of the grade. This includes all of the clusters in K.CC, K.OA, and K.NBT. To determine focus on major work, three perspectives were evaluated: the number of units devoted to major work, the number of lessons devoted to major work, and the number of instructional days devoted to major work. Of the three perspectives, the number of instructional days is most representative and was used to determine the score for this indicator.

• Kindergarten instruction is divided into seven units. Units 1 through 5 address K.CC, K.OA, and K.NBT. Therefore, 5 out of 7 units, approximately 71 percent, focus on major work of the grade.
• Kindergarten instruction is divided into 32 lessons. Twenty-five out of 32 lessons, approximately 78 percent, focus on major work of the grade.
• Kindergarten instruction consists of approximately 169 instructional days. Approximately 134 out of 169, approximately 79 percent, of the instructional days focus on major work of the grade.

The instructional materials reviewed for Ready Kindergarten meet the expectations for supporting content enhancing focus and coherence simultaneously by engaging students in the major work of the grade.

Examples of the connections between supporting work and major work include the following:

• In Unit 6 Lesson 28 on sorting objects, students count objects (K.CC.B) in order to sort the objects into groups (K.MD.3).
• In Unit 7 Lesson 30 in the Problem Solving Connection, students solve addition and subtraction word problems (K.OA.A) while recognizing shapes (K.G.2).
• In Unit 7 Lesson 31 students consider the number of sides in two different shapes (K.G.4) and also consider the number of sides altogether in two shapes (K.OA.A).

The instructional materials reviewed for Ready Kindergarten meet the expectations for the amount of content designated for one grade-level being viable for one school year in order to foster coherence between grades. The suggested pacing includes 160 days of lessons and another 9 days for assessment, making 169 days of materials. According to the Teacher Guide, pages A38-A39, each lesson is expected to last between 30-45 minutes.

The instructional materials reviewed for Ready Kindergarten meet the expectation for being consistent with the progressions in the standards. Content from prior grades is identified or connected to grade-level work, and students are given extensive work with grade-level problems.

Overall, materials develop according to the grade-by-grade progressions in the Standards. Typically, material related to prior and future grades is clearly identified or related to grade-level work.

The materials relate grade-level concepts to prior knowledge from earlier grades. Each Lesson Overview provides a Learning Progression. The Learning Progression explains connections between prior grades and the lesson. For example, in Unit 5 Lesson 21 the progression states, “In Kindergarten, children learn the counting sequence to 100 and count objects to 20. In previous lessons, they have recognized that the numbers 1-10 represent quantities and that these quantities can be combined to form greater quantities through addition.” Additionally, each unit begins with a progression overview document. This document connects grade level concepts to specific standards from prior grades, and this document also connects grade-level concepts to future standards. Student prior knowledge is activated and connected to new skills and concepts on the first day of each lesson in Use What You Know. For example, in Unit 5 Lesson 21 students begin with a review of rote counting to 20, which was learned in earlier Kindergarten lessons. Students use this prior knowledge as a foundation for learning teen numbers, which is new mathematics content for the grade-level.

The instructional materials provide given extensive work with grade-level problems. Lessons provide grade-level problems for students. Students spend five days in a lesson working with grade-level standards. During modeled and guided instruction, students explore ways to solve problems using multiple representations and prompts to reason and explain their thinking. The guided practice allows students to solve problems and discuss their solution methods. The independent practice provides students the opportunity to work with problems in a variety of formats to integrate and extend concepts and skills. The Practice and Problem Solving Guide provides additional practice problems for each of the lessons, and the back of the Practice and Problem Solving Guide provides problems for additional skills practice. Each lesson also has math center activities which provide additional practice with grade-level problems.

The instructional materials reviewed for Ready Kindergarten meet the expectations for fostering coherence through connections at a single grade, where appropriate and when the standards require. Overall, materials include learning objectives that are visibly shaped by CCSSM cluster headings and opportunities to provide problems and activities that connect two or more clusters in a domain or two or more domains, when these connections are natural and important.

Instructional materials are clearly shaped by CCSSM cluster headings. The units are divided into instruction focused on domains. Kindergarten standards are clearly identified in the Table of Contents and a CCSSM Focus box found at the beginning of each lesson. Additionally, a CCSSM Correlation Chart identifies which lessons address specific standards. Instructional materials shaped by cluster headings include the following examples:

• Unit 1 Lesson 1 Understand Counting is shaped by K.CC.B, count to tell the number of objects.
• Unit 5 Lesson 21 Understand Teen Numbers is shaped by K.NBT.A, work with numbers 11-19 to gain foundations for place value.
• Unit 6 Lesson 26 and Lesson 27 Compare Length and Compare Weight are shaped by K.MD.A, describe and compare measurable attributes.

Instructional materials include problems and activities that serve to connect two or more clusters in a domain or two or more domains in a grade in cases where the connections are natural and important.

• Unit 1 Lesson 4 Count 5 connects K.CC.A and K.CC.B as students engage in counting groups of objects and writing the number of objects within 5.
• Unit 3 Lesson 11 Count 10 connects K.CC.A and K.CC.B as students engage in counting objects within 10.
• Unit 5 Lesson 23 Make Teen Numbers (K.NBT.A) is connected to counting to 100 by ones (K.CC.A).