Kindergarten - Gateway 1

The instructional materials reviewed for Eureka Kindergarten meet expectations that they assess grade-level content. Each Eureka Module includes one or more assessments that hold students accountable for Kindergarten content. These assessments are the Mid-Module and End-of-Module assessments. Examples of the assessments include:

• In Module 1, End-of-Module Assessment Task: Students work with flat and solid shapes. Students classify and sort these shapes (K.MD.3 ,K.G.1, K.G.2, K.G.3, K.G.4).

• In Module 4, Mid-Module Assessment, Topic B: Students use number bonds and cubes to assist with composing and decomposing numbers (K.NBT.1).

  • T: (Put a 5-stick of the same-colored linking cubes and a tub of loose same-colored linking cubes in front of the student.) Show me 6 with the cubes. Show me 6 fingers the Math Way.

  • T: (Place the tub of loose linking cubes, two 5-sticks, and the number bond mat in front of the student.) Use the cubes to show me a number bond for 7.

  • T: (Put the number bond in a different orientation. Write 8 in the whole of the number bond in front of the student. Be sure that linking cubes are accessible so that the student may use linking cubes or drawings as support if needed.) Use your marker to complete this number bond. (Note how the student strategizes to solve the problem. What is she using to decompose 8, e.g., mental math, cubes, fingers, drawings? How does she know the quantities for each part: subitizing, counting all, counting on, etc.?)

• In Module 6, End-of-Module Assessment Task, Topic A: Students model shapes in the real world by building shapes from sticks and clay balls (K.G.5).

  • T: (Place all straws and formed clay connecting balls in front of the student.) Build a square.

  • T: (Place solid shapes in front of the student.) Choose one object that has the shape you just built.

• In Module 6, End-of-Module Assessment Task, Topic B: Students compose simple shapes to form larger shapes (K.G.6).

  • T: (Give the student two right triangles.) Use these triangles to make a rectangle.

  • T: (Give the student the 3-piece paper square puzzle disassembled.) This was a square. Then, I cut it into three pieces. Can you put it together so it makes a square again?

K.CC.1 is not assessed as it is written in the standards; teachers would need to extend the problem to ensure that the standard is met (count by tens and ones all the way to 100). K.CC.5 is not extended through 20 as indicated by the standard. Two geometry standards are also not extended to the detail given in the standards. For K.G.3, assessments do not include the words flat or solid, and for K.G.1, assessments do not require students to state relative positions of objects.

The instructional materials reviewed for Eureka Kindergarten meet expectations for spending a majority of instructional time on major work of the grade. This includes all clusters within the domains K.CC, K.OA and K.NBT.

• More than 65 percent of the lessons are explicitly focused on major work, with major work often included within supporting work lessons as well.

• Of the 152 lesson days, approximately 113 days (74 percent) are spent on the major clusters of the grade.

• Of the six modules, Modules 1, 4 and 5 focus on major work. Module 3 devotes more than half of the lessons to major work.

• Of the 45 assessment days, 39 assess major work.

The instructional materials reviewed for Eureka Kindergarten meet expectations that supporting work enhances focus and coherence simultaneously by engaging students in the major work of the grade. Supporting standards/clusters are connected to the major standards/clusters of the grade. For example:

• In Module 1, Lesson 5: K.MD.B supports the major work of K.CC.A and K.CC.B. Students sort and glue down objects into three different categories and count the number of objects in each category as part of their concept development work.

• In Module 2, Lesson 2: K.G.1, K.G.2 and K.G.4 support the major work of K.CC.A. Students count to and write 3 while learning about triangles.

• In Module 3, Lesson 7: K.MD.1 and K.MD.2 support the major work of K.CC.4c, K.CC.5 and K.CC.6. While measuring cubes/sticks, students also count to find other cubes/sticks that would equal the same amount. “Color 1 cube red and the rest green (5 total). How many cubes did you color? Is the stick the same length as the gray stick? Together 1 cube and 4 cubes are the same length as _____.”

• In Module 6, Lesson 3: K.G.4 and K.G.5 support the major work of K.CC.4. Students work within geometry to build cubes while practicing counting the faces of the cubes.

Instructional materials for Eureka Kindergarten meet expectations that the amount of content designated for one grade level is viable for one year. As designed, the instructional materials can be completed in 180 days. The suggested amount of time and expectations of the materials for teachers and students are viable for one school year as written and would not require significant modifications.

The instructional materials consist of 6 Modules. Instruction and assessment days are included in the following count:

• Module 1: 43 days

• Module 2: 12 days

• Module 3: 38 days

• Module 4: 47 days

• Module 5: 30 days

• Module 6: 10 days

All lessons are paced to be 50 minutes in length. Lessons include fluency practice, application problems, concept development and a student debrief. Lessons vary in amount of time spent on various sections, but time estimates are reasonable and appropriate for the activities described.

The instructional materials for Eureka Kindergarten meet expectations for the materials being consistent with the progressions in the standards. The instructional materials give all students extensive work with grade-level problems and identify as well as explicitly connect grade-level work to prior or future grades.

Each module starts with a summary of what concepts will be taught within that module.

The lessons support the progression of Kindergarten standards by explicitly stating connections to prior or future grades. The following examples are from Module 3:

• “Having observed, analyzed, and classified objects by shape into predetermined categories in Module 2, students now compare and analyze length, weight, capacity, and finally, numbers in Module 3.”

• “The module supports students’ understanding of amounts and their developing number sense. For example, counting how many small cups of rice are contained within a larger quantity provides a foundational concept of place value: Within a larger amount are smaller equal units, which together make up the whole.“ Four cups of rice is the same as 1 mug of rice.” Compare that statement to “10 ones is the same as 1 ten.” (1.NBT.2a)

• “If students progress quickly in comparing weight by estimating, they may be ready to use the balance scale sooner, allowing for the consolidation of Lessons 8 and 9.”

Foundational standards from Pre-Kindergarten are included for each module. (New York State Education Department) examples from Module 1 include:

• Compare numbers PK.CC.6

• Count to tell the number of objects PK.CC.3 | PK.CC.3.a | PK.CC.3.b |PK.CC.3.c | PK.CC.4

• Counting and Cardinality PK.CC.1 | PK.CC.2 | PK.CC.3 | PK.CC.3.a| PK.CC.3.b | PK.CC.3.c | PK.CC.4 | PK.CC.6

• Know number names and the count sequence PK.CC.1 | PK.CC.2

Initial lessons are focused on building fluency with numbers 1-10 before applying mathematical concepts to numbers. Content builds in a logical sequence. Students first learn mastery of counting to ten (Module 1) before building to addition/subtraction to ten (Module 4), addition/subtraction to twenty (Module 5) and counting to 100 (Module 5). Module 5 includes two different Grade 1 standards (1.OA.8 and 1.NBT.3); however, both standards are included as a logical extension of the topic being taught (composition and decomposition of teen numbers) and are not assessed in module assessments.

The instructional materials attend to the full intent of the grade-level standards by giving all students extensive work with grade-level problems. The following examples are from Module 4:

• In Module 4, students develop a deep understanding of number sense through a variety of lessons. Students revisit composing and decomposing numbers to 5, and then continue on with numbers 6-8. Then, students are introduced to addition and subtraction, first creating number sentences without unknowns (5 + 2 = 7) to develop an understanding of the addition/subtraction symbol and each number within the equation. Next, students move to working within addition/subtraction word problems and unknowns. Students draw a box around the total to track unknowns.

• In Lesson 8, a Homework Question states, “On the back of your paper, draw a set of 7 squares and circles. Make a number bond, and fill it in. Now, write a number sentence like the sentence above that tells about your set.”

• In Lesson 16, a Problem Set Question states, “There are 5 turtles swimming. Draw 2 more turtles that come to swim. How many turtles are swimming now? Draw a box around all the turtles, draw a mystery box, and write the answer.”

• In Lesson 25, a Problem Set Question states, “Draw 9 balloons. Color some red and the rest blue. Make a number bond to match your drawing.”

The instructional materials for Eureka Kindergarten meet expectations that materials foster coherence through connections at a single grade, where appropriate and required by the standards.

Materials include learning objectives that are visibly shaped by CCSSM cluster headings. For example:

• In Module 1, Topic B: "Classify to Make Categories and Count," is shaped by K.MD.B, "Classify Objects and Count the Number of Objects in Each Category."

• In Module 3, Lesson 1: “Compare lengths using taller than and shorter than with aligned and non-aligned endpoints.” is shaped by K.MD.A, “Describe and compare measurable attributes.”

• In Module 3, Lesson 7: "Compare Objects Using the Same as...," is shaped by K.CC.B, "Count to Tell the Number of Objects."

• In Module 5, Lesson 6: "Model with Objects and Represent Numbers from 10-20 with Place Value or Hide Zero Cards." is shaped by K.NBT.A, "Work with Numbers 11-19 to Gain Foundations for Place Value."

Materials include problems and activities that connect two or more clusters in a domain, or two or more domains in a grade, in cases where these connections are natural and important. For example:

• In Module 3, Lesson 5: Measurement and Data (K.MD) connects to Counting and Cardinality (K.CC). Students use “linking cube stairs” to compare lengths while counting.

• In Module 6, Lesson 3: Geometry (K.G) connects to Counting and Cardinality (K.CC). Students work with cubes and count faces.