4th Grade - Gateway 3

The materials reviewed for Amplify Science Grade 4 meet expectations for providing teacher guidance with useful annotations and suggestions for how to enact the student materials and ancillary materials, with specific attention to engaging students in figuring out phenomena and solving problems. Materials provide comprehensive guidance that will assist the teachers in presenting the student and ancillary materials. Examples from all units include:

• The Teacher Guide, Unit Overview introduces a real-world problem, which serves as the anchor phenomenon, and its relevance to our lives. It also gives an overview of how students will build knowledge in order to solve a new problem.

• The Teacher Guide, The Progress Build explains how knowledge about the phenomenon deepens as the students progress through the unit, specifically noting bolded statements.

• The Teacher Guide, Getting Ready to Teach specifically details what the teacher needs to do to prepare Before You Present the Lesson, While You Present the Lesson, and After You Present the Lessons.

• All Chapters, Lessons, Digital Resources, Classroom Slide|Powerpoint and the Google Slides suggest teacher talk and teacher actions.

• All Chapters, Lessons, Lesson Brief, Activity, Instructional Guide, Step-by-Step provides the instructional strategy and precise teacher talk and teacher action. 

• All Chapters, Lessons, Lesson Brief, Activity, Instructional Guide, Teacher Support provides background information about the three dimensions of the Next Generation Science Standards featured in the activity as well as the Rationale behind the teacher action and instructional suggestions. 

• The Teacher Guide, Unit Overview, Printable Resources, Coherence Flowcharts provide teachers with a graphic organizer for each chapter in the unit “that helps students see the connections between the phenomena and questions that drive students’ experiences, the evidence they gather, the ideas they figure out, and the new questions that those ideas generate.”

• All lessons, Overview, Lesson at a Glance briefly describe student activities and suggested time allocation for each activity. 

The instructional guides for each lesson from Grade 4 include suggestions about instructional strategies and guidance for presenting the content, which often includes identifying, with limited room for more targeted approaches to addressing student naive conceptions. Examples from all units include:

• The Teacher Guide, Progress Build Section(s) provide prior knowledge (preconceptions) that students may bring to the lesson, foundational knowledge needed for student understanding and growth throughout the lesson, and progress build levels describing conceptual growth that students are expected to experience throughout the unit.

• The Teacher Guide, Eliciting and Leveraging Student’s Prior Knowledge, Personal Experiences, and Cultural Backgrounds, supports teachers by introducing the phenomenon and consistently eliciting students' initial ideas related to the phenomenon. Also, this resource provides support for teachers to document ideas throughout the units on a class chart for ongoing reference and to help students add, revise, and reflect on their ideas. 

With regard to addressing how to support students in figuring out phenomena and/or solving problems, the materials support the teacher in seeing connections between the phenomena and questioning, but miss the opportunity to clearly articulate/illustrate how the students’ understanding of the phenomenon deepens throughout. Evidence of connections between phenomena and questioning includes:

• The Teacher Guide, Unit Overview, Printable Resources, Coherence Flowcharts provide teachers with a graphic organizer for each chapter in the unit “that helps students see the connections between the phenomena and questions that drive students’ experiences, the evidence they gather, the ideas they figure out, and the new questions that those ideas generate.” 

• Within each Activity, there is also an Instructional Guide with step-by-step guidance that is present for teachers to support their understanding of which Science and Engineering Practices (SEPs) are the focus and how to support students in using them as students figure out the phenomena or solve the problems. 

All units conclude by asking students to apply the knowledge acquired throughout the unit to a new problem. Teachers are provided support via the PowerPoint slides and include suggested teacher talk to frame how engineers solve problems, in context with the ideas students learned and also teacher action to help students consider and discuss solutions.

The materials reviewed for Amplify Science Grades 4 meet expectations for containing adult-level explanations and examples of the more complex grade-level concepts and concepts beyond the current course so that teachers can improve their own knowledge of the subject. The materials include support for teachers to develop their own understanding of grade-level concepts and content knowledge beyond the scope of the current course. 

Support for teacher understanding is present across all units. The Teacher Guide section, Science Background provides adult-level science background related to the unit. This section contains expository explanations of scientific background for the three dimensions of NGSS pertaining to the unit, with grade-level appropriate student background as well as common preconceptions by both students and adults. The Teacher Guide explicitly states that the information is meant to guide the teacher in teaching the correct content, but is not meant as student-facing material.

Also in the Teacher Guide, Planning For the Unit, Digital Resource Tab, Unit Map, there is an outline of the expected student practices for each Chapter. It presents a Chapter guiding question with an explanation for the teacher regarding how the students will develop understanding through lesson activities. 

The Teacher Guide, Science Background provides detailed adult-level science background regarding each unit’s science content along with a description of the extent to which this content is to be shared with students. The Science Background section includes cited references to inform teachers of the pedagogical research-based approaches to support grade-level content delivery as it is presented in the materials. In the Connections to Future Learning section of the Science Background, there is support for teacher content knowledge beyond scope of the current course. For example, in Grade 4, Unit: Energy Conversions, Planning for the Unit, Science Background, Connections to Future Learning, there are detailed paragraphs on how this content connects to learning to come in middle school as well as high school. It provides adult level explanations about energy such as "In middle school, students expand their understanding of energy in a system to include potential energy, which is defined as stored energy. Examples of potential energy include the energy in a charged battery, the energy in a compressed spring, the energy of a skateboard at the top of a ramp, the energy stored in a magnetic field when two repelling magnets are pushed together, and the energy stored in substances (e.g., glucose and oxygen) that can be released in a chemical reaction. One thing all these different examples have in common is that, unlike with kinetic energy, we cannot directly observe evidence of this energy until it has been transferred into another form."

The materials reviewed for Amplify Grade 4 meet expectations for including standards correlation information, including connections to college- and career-ready ELA and mathematics standards and that explain the role of the standards in the context of the overall series. The materials contain NGSS correlation information in multiple locations. All grades contain examples in the Teacher Guide:

• Planning for the Unit and Standards at a Glance include a listing of the NGSS Performance Expectations (PEs), Science and Engineering Practices (SEPs), DIsciplinary Core Ideas (DCIs), and Crosscutting Concepts (CCCs) addressed in the Unit. 

• Teacher References, 3-D Statements outline three-dimensional statements for the unit level, the chapter level, and the lesson level of each unit for all grades.  

• Lesson Guide, Overview, and Standards sections provide a listing of the NGSS PEs, SEPs, and CCCs that are addressed in the lesson. The Lesson Progression at the beginning of each unit shows how each NGSS standard connects to and builds upon the previous grade level.  

The materials also include an explanation for the role of the NGSS standards in the context of the overall series. The Teacher Guide, Teacher Reference, Standards and Goals lists the PEs, SEPs, DCIs and CCCs that are covered in the unit. This section also provides an explanation of the core ideas across the K-8 grade span of the materials in a subsection titled “Trajectory of Core Ideas.”

The materials also provide lists of corollary Common Core ELA and mathematics standards. The Teacher’s Guide, Planning for the Unit, Standards at a Glance  and Standards and Goals (under Teacher References) all list the corollary Common Core ELA (CCSS-ELA) and Common Core Math (CCSS-Math) standards addressed in each unit. Lesson Guide, Lesson Brief, and Standards include a list of the CCSS-ELA and CCSS-Math addressed in each lesson. The materials offer suggested connections with ELA and/or Math and consistently provide specific explanations regarding how the standards are aligned with the context of the lesson and/or series. For example, in Grade 4, Unit: Earth's Features, Teacher References, Standards and Goals there is detailed information that describes the connections to common core English Language Arts and the Math standards. For ELA it states, “CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.4.1: Refer to details and examples in a text when explaining what the text says explicitly and when drawing inferences from the text. Students have the opportunity to refer to details and examples in texts as they practice noticing and making inferences while reading. For example, in Lesson 1.2, students learn how geologists use observations and inferences as they read the book, Clues from the Past, and practice observing and making inferences of their own while they read. In Lesson 2.1, students practice making inferences about Devils Postpile in the book, Through the Eyes of a Geologist.” Also, for Math it states, “CCSS.MATH.PRACTICE.MP1: Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them. Throughout this unit, students have multiple opportunities to make sense of problems and persevere in solving them as they use various hands-on models and the Earth’s Features Sim to investigate processes that impact rock formation.”

The materials for Grade 4 meet expectations for providing explanations of the instructional approaches of the program and identification of the research-based strategies. The materials explain the instructional approaches of the program. Evidence of this can be found throughout the grades, units and lessons. In each Unit Overview, Teacher References, and Standards and Goals section the materials explain an instructional approach that incorporates the strategies of Do, Talk, Read, Write, and Visualize in coordination with the NGSS crosscutting concepts (CCCs) and the disciplinary core ideas (DCIs) associated with the specific unit of instruction. These strategies are further explained in each Lesson with more explicit detail.  Examples at the Grade 4 level include:

• In Grade 4, Unit: Vision and Light, Lesson 1.2, Activity 1 Hands on Using Senses to Get Information demonstrates “Do” by providing an investigation in which students use their senses. The Teacher Support section provides the rationale for the pedagogical goals of providing first hand experiences. “In this unit students explore senses through a variety of investigations, including this sensing investigation and later investigations with a physical model called the Mystery Box. By referring to the evidence students gather from firhand observations, students learn important science ideas, as well as gain experience using language to express these ideas.” 

• In Grade 4, Unit: Vision and Light, Lesson 1.3, Activity 2 Reading: Investigating Animal Senses demonstrates “Read” by introducing the Partner Reading routine and teaching students how to ask questions as they read. 

• In Grade 4, Unit: Vision and Light, Lesson 1.4, Activity 1 Critical Juncture: Writing to Reflect demonstrates “Write” by asking students to reflect and write independently about what they understand about the key science concept at this point in time. Once they are finished writing, they share their reflections with a partner.

The materials provide some explanation for the research-based strategies that are used in the design of the program. While the Program Guide, Science Program Guide, Designed for the NGSS, and Program Development sections explain the Do, Talk, Read, Write, Visualize pedagogical approach that drives Amplify Science, there is a missed opportunity to incorporate explicit citations or references in the teacher materials. Instead, the references for “Research Behind the Program'' exist on a website outside of the teacher materials.

The materials for Grade 4 meet expectations for providing a comprehensive list of supplies needed to support instructional activities. In the Teacher’s Guide, Unit Overview, Planning for the Unit, Materials and Preparation section for each unit, a thorough list of the materials needed over the course of each chapter and lesson is present. Every list includes the quantity needed to support a class of 36 students, a description of each item and in which lessons the item(s) will be used. It also contains a comprehensive list of materials that need to be provided by the teacher or school, the quantity needed, item description and the lessons requiring these materials.

In addition to the unit overview, each Lesson Brief contains a lesson-level Materials and Preparation section outlining the materials needed for the class, groups of students and/or individual students and preparations needed before the start of each lesson. 

The materials for Grade 4 meet expectations for embedding clear science safety guidelines for teachers and students across the instructional materials. In the Unit Overview, Printable Resources section, an Investigation Notebook is provided for student use. Each Investigation Notebook contains a section titled, “Safety Guidelines for Science Investigations.” It is important to note that teachers should always locate and adhere to local policies and regulations related to science safety in the classroom. In each Unit Overview, Materials and Preparation, Materials at a Glance section, there is a reminder: “Note: Check and follow your district’s safety regulations pertaining to the use of proper equipment and procedures for students participating in hands-on science activities.”  

Additional safety notes are located in the teacher print or digital materials within lessons which have specific safety notes for the teacher to communicate to students.

One example of an additional safety note includes:

• Grade 4, Unit: Vision and Light, Lesson 1.2, Overview, Digital Resources provides a PDF entitled “Careful Smelling” that provides students with steps on how to smell substances correctly during an investigation as well as an illustration of the process.

The assessment materials for Grade 4 are comprehensively designed and aligned within the Units. It is clear for teachers where the assessments are, the type of assessments that are provided, and to what standard(s) each assessment opportunity is intended to be aligned. For instance, in the Grade 4 Teacher’s Guides, any unit, Teacher References, Assessment System, each assessment opportunity throughout the Unit is listed in a chart in relation to the Lesson, type of assessment, and NGSS standard intended to be assessed. In addition, in the Teacher Guide for every Grade 4 Unit, under Printable Resources, there is a document titled 3-D Assessment Objectives This document contains the 3-D Statements and accompanying objectives, their pertinence in the unit, and the type of assessment aligned to that objective. “Each table includes the Disciplinary Core Ideas (DCIs), Science and Engineering Practices (SEPs), and Crosscutting Concepts (CCCs) included in that Performance Expectation and specifies the location of assessments associated with these three dimensions.”

The materials provide information detailing how assessments build toward the standards for the grade level or band. In the Teacher Guide of each Unit, Teacher Reference, Assessment System, Monitoring Progress section, there is a discussion of Critical Juncture Assessments with an outline of each Critical Juncture concept and assessment in each Unit. The Critical Juncture assessments provide the teacher with specific three-dimensional statements to assess before moving forward in the Lessons. Lessons that provide Critical Junctures or On-the-Fly Assessments also provide an Assessment Guide or a Hands-On Flextension Lesson Guide in the Lesson Brief, Overview, Digital Resources section which states the DCI, SEP, and CCC.

In addition to listing intended standards alignment in the Teacher Guide of all Units, Teacher References, Assessment System, and the Formative and Summative Assessment Opportunities sections list the DCI, SEP, and the CCC addressed in each assessment. These also include strikethroughs of the portion of the standard that is not assessed in the Unit. While strikethroughs indicate which portion of the standard is not being assessed, there is a missed opportunity to state how the assessments contribute to building toward the end of grade-level performance expectations.

The materials for Amplify Grade 4 meet expectations for providing an assessment system with multiple opportunities throughout the grade, course, and/or series to determine students' learning, sufficient guidance for teachers to help them interpret student performance, and suggestions for following-up with students. 

Examples include:

• In each Unit, the Assessment Guide for the End-of-Unit Assessment provides three rubrics, one each for the DCI, SEP, and CCC as well as questions to support teachers in determining students’ initial understanding of the standards identified for each assessment. For example, Grade 4, Unit: Energy Conversions, Lesson 4.6, Lesson Overview, Digital Resources, Assessment Guide: Assessing Students’ End-of-Unit Design Arguments About Solutions for Ergstown’s Electrical System provides three rubrics for scoring and guiding teachers in interpreting student responses. Rubric 1 focuses on assessing students’ performance of the practices of engaging in argument from evidence and obtaining, evaluating, and communicating information. Rubric 2 focuses on assessing students’ understanding of science ideas encountered in the unit. Rubric 3 focuses on assessing students’ understanding of the crosscutting concept systems and system models. 

• Further, the Assessment Guide for the End-of-Unit Assessment rubrics include suggestions for Follow-Up. For example, in Grade 4, Unit: Vision and Light, End-Of-Unit Assessment Guide found in the Digital Resources for the lessons with End-of-Unit Assessments and Investigation Assessments there is detailed information that "shows specific suggestions for follow-up with students who need additional support based on the results of the assessment." There are follow up activities suggested for each rubric. Each rubric addresses the SEPs, DCIs, and CCCs that were assessed. The rubric provides follow-up questions for the teacher to ask the students, such as "If students do not show understanding that an animal sees when light from a source reflects off an object and enters the animal’s eyes: • Remind students of when they used the Vision and Light Simulation to investigate how light allows an animal to see an object in Lesson 2.4,  Activity 1. • Ask, “What happened when light from a source went straight into the predator’s eye?” [The predator could not see its prey.] “What happened when light that reflected off the prey went into the predator’s eye?” [The predator could see its prey.]  “How does light allow an animal to see something?”  [Light reflects off the object and then goes into the animal’s eyes.] • Connect to the End-of-Unit Assessment. Ask, “How does light help a Tokay gecko see its prey?” [Light reflects off the prey and then goes into the Tokay gecko’s eyes.]" 

• The Embedded Formative Assessments, The Critical Juncture, and On-the-Fly Assessments, provide guidance on what to look for and how to tailor instruction if students do not demonstrate understanding. The guidance can be found by clicking on the Hummingbird Icon in the Activity containing a formative assessment. Grade 4, Unit: Waves, Energy, and Information, Lesson 1.2, Activity 3, Hummingbird Icon Embedded Formative Assessment, On the Fly Assessment 1: Making Observations states, “Listen for whether students are noticing similarities or differences in the patterns of the different waves…Probe for misunderstandings by asking questions such as Can you explain your drawing to me?,..If students are having trouble describing what they are observing, you might have students who can accurately draw and describe the motion to students who are finding it challenging. ” Another example can be found in Grade 4, Unit: Waves, Energy, and Information, Lesson 1.5, Activity 3, Critical Juncture Assessment 1: How Does a Wave Travel? which suggests teachers to circulate the room and pay attention as students label diagrams, it points out specifics to look for but does not guide the teacher on follow up with students if something is not up to par. The publisher does suggest allowing some students to orally explain but does not give context on how to select which students or how to assess orally. Also, Grade 4, Unit: Earth’s Features, Lesson 3.4, Activity 2, Embedded Formative Assessment, Critical Juncture Assessment 3: Order of Environments suggests that for students that don’t understand the concept the teacher is to refer back to the simulation in Activity 1.  The teacher works through the simulation as students take note of the environments and rock types.  The simulation allows the teacher to move time forward and backward so students can see the progression of rock formation and the types of environments that can influence rock type.

• In each Unit, Unit Overview, Teacher References, the Embedded Formative Assessments detail the targeted learning objectives and how students will demonstrate the targeted standards under the heading Look Fors as well as the next steps teachers should take when students do not demonstrate understanding under the heading Now What? The Grade 4, Unit: Waves, Energy, and Information, Unit Overview, Teacher References, Embedded Formative Assessments states that students who have difficulty describing their observations may draw a model rather than explain it or listen to others explain it.

The materials for Grade 4 meet expectations for providing assessment opportunities for students to demonstrate the full intent of grade-level standards and elements across the series. The assessment system consistently incorporates the three dimensions. The assessment system also provides a variety of assessment types, but constructed response is the predominant modality. The Pre-Assessment, On-the-fly, Critical Juncture, and End-of-unit assessments require written responses. They assess the DCIs CCCs, and SEPs. There is a missed opportunity for students to demonstrate all of the SEPs, but there is a consistent focus on the practices of constructing explanations, argumentation, and modeling. Both versions (A and B) of the summative assessment ask students to provide written explanations. Version B provides students with sentence starters. Examples of assessments in this grade can be found in the reports for Indicators 1b and 1c.

In addition to summative assessments, Conversation rubrics found throughout the resources offer prompts, look fors, and/or suggestions for how to evaluate students but most focus on a singular dimension. There are rubrics that provide questions to develop understanding of students’ ability to demonstrate each dimension. The rubrics provide partial scores for partial student answers.

The materials reviewed for Grade 4 meet expectations for providing strategies and support for students in special populations to support their regular and active participation in learning grade-level/grade-band science and engineering. The strategies, supports, and resources to support students in regular and active participation and engagement include sentence starters or frames for discussions, revisiting the text, strategically pairing students, allowing adequate time, and utilizing graphic organizers. 

Examples include: 

• The Grade 4, Unit: Vision & Light, Lesson 3.1, Differentiation Brief Teachers use sentence frames such as, “I observe that light first…” in order to help some students more fully describe their observations about what happens when light moves through different parts of the eye.

• Grade 4, Unit: Waves, Energy, and Information, Lesson 1.5, Activity 3, Teacher Support suggests providing examples to differentiate for students as well as using kinesthetic examples to help with vocabulary.

• Grade 4, Unit: Vision & Light, Lesson 1.3, Differentiation Brief suggests teachers strategically pair stronger readers with students who may need additional reading supports.

• In Grade 4, The Program Guide, The Access and Equity, Differentiation Strategies, the Students with Disabilities section states that detailed suggestions for students with disabilities can be found in each lesson and assessment task. Some examples are strategic grouping to create “positive and supportive student partnerships” that are important to developing a class culture where students feel comfortable in sharing ideas, and utilizing graphic organizers which are provided in lessons to guide student thinking. Another strategy suggested is that teachers provide students with adequate time to discuss and compose their ideas with partners or small groups before a writing task.

The materials miss the opportunity to draw a clear connection between specific strategies and supports for “students who need more support” and any below grade-level knowledge or skills. 

The materials for Grade 4 meet expectations for providing extensions and/or opportunities for students to engage in learning grade-level/grade-band science and engineering at greater depth. Materials provide multiple opportunities for advanced students to engage in grade-level/grade-band science at a higher level of complexity. In multiple instances, the program differentiates for students who need more challenge. For example, in Grade 4, Unit: Vision and Light, Lesson 3.3 Investigating Information Processing, under the Digital Resources, the publisher has provided "Seeing Different Prey in the Sim (More Challenge)" to differentiate for students who need more challenge. This provides the opportunity for students to work with "alternate prompts for students who need more challenge in Activity 2.”

Additionally, in the digital platform, the Programs and Apps icon, Other Resources, Science Program Hub, Additional Unit Materials, any grade, any unit, Unit Extensions; teachers are provided a list of recommended extension activities such as field trips, integrating STEAM activities, incorporating forms of art, and conducting a research project in a group that can be offered to all students. Each document contains a statement similar to: “The experiences above can support the Disciplinary Ideas addressed in this unit, as well as practices such as Designing Solutions and crosscutting concepts such as Structure and Function.” These extension activities are activities that all students can benefit from. The extension activities are optional, but do present extra work for students who are asked to complete them. For Instance, in Grade 4, Unit: Earth’s Features, Lesson 4.5, Differentiation Brief: Students who need more of a challenge can complete an additional writing to explain the differences in erosion in Desert Rocks Canyon and Keller’s Canyon.