Kindergarten - Gateway 1
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Focus & Coherence
| Score | |
|---|---|
Gateway 1 - Does Not Meet Expectations | 28% |
Criterion 1.1: Focus | 0 / 2 |
Criterion 1.2: Coherence | 0 / 4 |
Criterion 1.3: Coherence | 4 / 8 |
The instructional materials for Japan Math Kindergarten do not meet expectations for focus and coherence in Gateway 1. For focus, the instructional materials do not meet the expectations for assessing grade-level standards, and the amount of time devoted to the major work of the grade is approximately 59%. For coherence, the instructional materials are not coherent and consistent with the Standards. The instructional materials have an amount of content designated for one grade level that is partially viable for one school year, and the materials partially engage students in the major work of the grade through supporting content. The materials do not identify content from future grades, and do not give students work with extensive grade-level problems. The instructional materials do contain connections between two or more clusters in a domain or two or more domains.
Criterion 1.1: Focus
The instructional materials reviewed for Japan Math Kindergarten do not meet expectations for not assessing topics before the grade level in which the topic should be introduced. The instructional materials include assessment items that align to standards above this grade level.
Indicator 1a
The instructional materials reviewed for Japan Math Kindergarten do not meet expectations for assessing grade-level content.
The materials include 13 Unit Tests, two Midterm Tests, and two Final Tests provided in the materials. The assessments include above-grade level content that would require major modifications and, if removed, would change the underlying structure and intent of the materials. Examples include:
- In Final Test 1, Skills 4, students “Calculate 1 + 9, 7 + 3, 6 + 1, and 3 + 4”, but there is not space, context, or representation provided. For K.OA.5, students demonstrate fluency within 5, while the assessment addresses fluency within 10 (1.OA.6).
- In Unit Test 5, Skill 2, students draw a circle to extend a pattern. Creating or extending patterns aligns to 4.OA.5.
- In Unit Test 9, Skill 5, students compare three objects which aligns to 1.MD.1.
- In Unit Test 10, Skill 1, and Midterm Test, Skill 2, students count a scattered configuration of 16 and 19, which does not align to K.CC.5, count scattered configurations up to 10.
- In Unit Test 10, Skill 2, students “calculate 16 + 2.” The materials use the term “calculate” for students to demonstrate fluency without representation. This problem utilizes numbers within 20 (2.OA.2).
- In Unit Test 10, Skill 4, Midterm Test, Skill 6, and Final Test, Skill 5, students circle the card with the larger number from the pairs 9 or 11 and 13 or 20, which aligns to 1.NBT.3.
Examples of grade-level assessment items include:
- In Unit Test 2, Question 1, students “write the number of each object with a picture of three ice cream cones.” In the teacher guide the exemplar response is: “students write 3.” In the same assessment, students are provided a “picture of 8 kittens” with the exemplar response to write the number 8 (K.CC.3).
- In Unit Test 4, Question 1, students match real-world objects with three dimensional shapes by drawing a line to match (ex. birthday hat to cone), K.G.1.
Criterion 1.2: Coherence
Students and teachers using the materials as designed devote the large majority of class time in each grade K-8 to the major work of the grade.
The instructional materials reviewed for Japan Math Kindergarten do not meet expectations for devoting the large majority of class time to the major work of the grade. The instructional materials spend approximately 59% of instructional time on the major work of the grade.
Indicator 1b
Instructional material spends the majority of class time on the major cluster of each grade.
The instructional materials reviewed for Japan Math Kindergarten do not meet the expectation for spending the majority of class time on the major clusters of each grade. For Kindergarten, this includes all clusters within K.OA, K.NBT, and K.CC.
- The number of units devoted to major work of the grade (including supporting work connected to the major work) is 8 out of 13, which is approximately 62%.
- The number of lessons devoted to major work of the grade (including supporting work connected to the major work) is 72 out of 150, which is approximately 48%.
- The number of days devoted to major work (including assessments and supporting work connected to the major work) is 91 out of 163, which is approximately 59%.
The number of days devoted to major work is most representative of the instructional materials because that involves assessments. As a result, approximately 59% of the instructional materials focus on major work of the grade.
Criterion 1.3: Coherence
Coherence: Each grade's instructional materials are coherent and consistent with the Standards.
The instructional materials for Japan Math Kindergarten do not meet expectations for being coherent and consistent with the Standards. The instructional materials partially engage students in the major work of the grade through supporting content, do not identify content from future grades, and do not give students work with extensive grade-level problems. The instructional materials do contain connections between two or more clusters in a domain or two or more domains.
Indicator 1c
Supporting content enhances focus and coherence simultaneously by engaging students in the major work of the grade.
The instructional materials reviewed for Japan Math Kindergarten partially meet expectations for supporting content enhancing focus and coherence simultaneously by engaging students in the major work of the grade. In Unit 2, the instructional materials connect supporting work to the major work of the grade, but in other units, connections are omitted.
Examples of K.MD.3 connected to K.CC in Unit 2 include:
- The overview of Unit 2 states, “In order to count correctly, students not only have to be able to recite the number word sequence correctly but also have to make a one-to-one correspondence to compare two groups.”
- In Lesson 2, students make groups based on various points of view, characteristics, and type of animal. In the lessons that follow, students count the objects in the categories (K.MD.3), and this supports K.CC, displaying knowledge of number names, the count sequence, count to tell the number of objects, and compare numbers.
- In Lesson 3, students “compare the size of two groups using semi concrete objects (blocks) to represent the objects in the group.” The students count groups of birds and birdhouses to determine and identify if there are more birds or birdhouses. Students count to tell the numbers of objects (K.CC.B), compare the number of objects (K.CC.C), and classify objects (K.MD.3).
- In Lessons 5, 6, 11, and 12, students count to tell how many objects in a given category, connecting K.MD.3 to K.CC.5.
Examples of supporting work not connected to major work of the grade and/or omitted connections include:
- In the materials, supporting standards and clusters are identified in separate units. For example, Geometry is identified for Units 3-6, and Operations and Algebraic Thinking is identified for Units 7 and 8.
- Unit 3 addresses standard K.G.1, identify positions of objects, but students do not reason with shapes or the attributes, which omits a connection to K.CC.B. Students do not count shapes nor attributes of the shapes (sides, etc.).
- Unit 4 addresses K.G, but no connections are made to major work of the grade. Students match, compose, and sort shapes (K.G.A,B).
- Unit 5 addresses K.G.A and K.G.B, focusing on 2D shapes. Students circle and color shapes, choose shapes to complete patterns, and use shapes to create composite shapes. There is no connection to K.CC.5.
- In Unit 12, Lesson 2, students count and compare the number of animal cards presented to the area an object occupies (K.MD.1,2), but there is no connection to K.CC.6.
Indicator 1d
The amount of content designated for one grade level is viable for one school year in order to foster coherence between grades.
The instructional materials reviewed for Japan Math Kindergarten partially meet the expectation for having an amount of content that is viable for one school year.
According to the publisher, the instructional materials can be completed in 163 days as outlined in the teacher manual: one day per lesson and one day for each assessment. However, the content presented is insufficient to the instructional time allotted for each lesson, and teachers would need to make modifications to ensure content is viable for one year.
The Teacher’s Edition includes a scope and sequence of the instructional materials, noting there are 13 units with 150 lessons in total, each designed for 50 minutes. The 50 minutes for each lesson includes workbook pages for students to complete with scripted teacher directions and question prompts. Each prompt is accompanied by a suggested amount of time. In the materials, time was not identified or described for assessments, so one day was allotted per unit for assessments.
Lessons that include suggested prompt activities that take less than the 50 minutes described in the Scope and Sequence include, but are not limited to:
- In Unit 6, Lessons 2-8, 13, 14, and 16 are each 30 minutes.
- In Unit 6, Lessons 9 and 15 are each 35 minutes.
- In Unit 7, Lessons 1-15 are each 30 minutes.
- In Unit 7, Lessons 16-18 are each 40 minutes.
In addition, examples of lesson prompts that would not provide 50 minutes of instructional time include, but are not limited to:
- In Unit 2, Lesson 1 suggests five minutes for students to look at a picture and answer the prompt, “What kind of animals do you see?” Additionally, in the same lesson, 25 minutes are suggested for students to look at a picture and answer the following prompts, “What are the mice doing?” and “What are the rabbits doing?”
- In Unit 3, Lesson 1 suggests five minutes for students to look at a picture. Then, five more minutes are suggested for students to talk about the picture. Finally, 15 minutes are suggested for students to discuss where the animals are located in the picture.
- In Unit 3, Lesson 2 suggests 10 minutes for students to read and color a rabbit brown and a lion yellow.
- In Unit 4, Lesson 4 suggests 20 minutes for students to connect shapes.
- In Unit 5, Lesson 1 suggests 20 minutes for students to complete a worksheet matching 2D shapes to everyday objects.
- In Unit 8, Lessons 6 and 7 suggest 30 minutes for students to calculate six subtraction problems using ten frames and blocks.
- In Unit 10, Lesson 1 suggests five minutes for students to think about what they are studying for the day. An additional five minutes is given for students count the apples and place a math block on each apple. Students then spend 15 minutes to count their math blocks. Finally, students are given 10 minutes to write the numbers 10, 4, and 14.
- In Unit 10, Lesson 5 suggests 20 minutes for students to answer the question, “There are ten blocks and how many more math blocks (are needed)?”
- In Unit 13, Lesson 5 suggests 10 minutes for students to “count the number of chocolates.”
Teachers would need to find additional content for many lessons to meet the time frame of 50 minutes. Optional expansion workbooks can be purchased separately for more questions, however, these were not reviewed as they are not part of the core program.
Indicator 1e
Materials are consistent with the progressions in the Standards i. Materials develop according to the grade-by-grade progressions in the Standards. If there is content from prior or future grades, that content is clearly identified and related to grade-level work ii. Materials give all students extensive work with grade-level problems iii. Materials relate grade level concepts explicitly to prior knowledge from earlier grades.
The instructional materials for Japan Math Kindergarten do not meet expectations for being consistent with the progressions in the Standards. Overall, the materials do not provide all students with extensive work on grade-level problems. The instructional materials do not develop according to the grade-by-grade progressions in the Standards. Content from prior and future grades is not clearly identified nor related to the grade-level work. The instructional materials do not relate grade-level concepts explicitly to prior knowledge from earlier grades. At the beginning of each unit, there is "Explanation of the Unit" which provides a description of connections to concepts that have been taught earlier and is identified as “What Students Have Learned Previously”.
The lessons follow a structure of Try, Understand, Apply, and Master. Most lessons do not provide enough opportunity for students to independently demonstrate mastery. The lessons include teacher-directed problems that the class solves together, but the instructional materials do not include supplemental practice or problems that students complete independently. Whole class instruction is used in the lessons, and all students are expected to do the same work throughout the lesson.
Examples of content from prior and future grades that is not clearly identified include:
- In Unit 7, students calculate fluently within 10, which aligns to 1.OA.6, and solve addition problems with 10, but this is not identified in the Teacher’s Edition.
- In Unit 8, Lessons 14 and 15 do not identify 1.OA.6, but students add and subtract fluently within 10.
- In Unit 10, Lessons 1-8, students count a scattered configuration of 13, which does not align to K.CC.5, count a scattered configuration up to 10. Also, students circle a group of ten and begin unitizing to write numerals as “tens” and “ones”, which aligns to 1.NBT.2, but is not identified.
- In Unit 10, Lesson 10, students skip count by 2s and 5s to find how many. K.CC.1 includes counting by 1s and 10s. The instructional materials do not address the grade level standard.
- In Unit 10, Lessons 14 and 15, students circle cards with the larger number. The options often are above 10 (11-19), which aligns to 1.NBT.3, but is not identified as such.
- In Unit 10, Lesson 16, students write the number “4 more than 1” or “2 less than 17”. K.CC.5 is understanding that a number is 1 larger for each successive number name, so Lesson 16 addresses 1.OA.5 and is not identified by the materials.
- In Unit 10, Lessons 17, 18, and 20, students complete problems that are addition and subtraction within 20, which aligns to 1.OA.1, but are not identified as such.
- In Unit 10, Lesson 19, students use addition to fluently add within 20, which aligns to 2.OA.2, but is not identified as such.
- In Unit 13, students place numbers above 20 into tens and ones, which aligns to 1.NBT.2, but is not identified in the instructional materials.
Examples of the instructional materials not addressing grade-level standards or giving all students extensive work with grade-level problems include:
- The materials identify K.OA.3,4 in Unit 6. The last 4 lessons of Unit 6 address K.OA.4 by making 10. In the other lessons, the students decompose numbers starting at 5 and going up to 9 for each lesson. Students do not extend their knowledge of K.OA.3 and K.OA.4 to include numbers up to 20.
- K.CC.6 is not addressed.
- K.G.5 is not addressed.
- K.CC.1 is addressed one time in Unit 13.
Indicator 1f
Materials foster coherence through connections at a single grade, where appropriate and required by the Standards i. Materials include learning objectives that are visibly shaped by CCSSM cluster headings. ii. 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 these connections are natural and important.
The instructional materials for Japan Math Kindergarten meets expectations for fostering coherence through connections at a single grade, where appropriate and required by the Standards.
The materials include learning objectives that are visibly shaped by CCSSM cluster headings, and examples include:
- In Unit 2, Lesson 1, the objective, “Make groups based on various points of view and characteristics” is shaped by K.MD.A, Describe and compare measurable attributes.
- In Unit 7, Lesson 10, the objective, “Understand addition ‘put together’ situations from reading sentences” is shaped by K.OA.A, Understand addition as putting together and adding to, and understand subtraction as taking apart or taking from.
- In Unit 8, Lesson 3, the objective, “Understand that ‘take from’ can be expressed as a subtraction sentence using numerals and symbols” is shaped by K.OA.A, Understand addition as putting together and adding to, and understand subtraction as taking apart or taking from.
The 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, and examples include:
- In Unit 2, Lessons 3-6 connect K.CC.A, K.CC.B, and K.CC.B, as students count the number of objects in a group. Students use blocks to represent the concrete objects, count the number of blocks, and identify which group has more.
- In Unit 6, students count fish and represent the count with blocks by making groups of 10 (K.CC.A), and this is connected to using number blocks and pictures to represent numbers (K.OA.A).
- In Unit 10, Lessons 1 and 2, students count the number of apples on a tree (K.CC.A) and group the apples into 10 and 4 (K.NBT.A). Students also count the number of cookies in a jar and represent the answer with blocks.