Kindergarten - Gateway 3

The materials reviewed for i-Ready Classroom Mathematics Grade Kindergarten 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 order to guide their mathematical development. 

Materials provide comprehensive guidance that will assist teachers in presenting the student and ancillary materials. Examples include:

• i-Ready Homepage, Success Central, Preparing for a Unit of Instruction, “Before delivering each unit of instruction, make sure to peruse the unit-level resources in your Teacher’s Guide. Learn about the unit goals by reading the Unit Opener, take note of the vocabulary and language supports, and study the mathematics in the unit by watching the Unit Flow and Progression Video or reading the Math Background pages.” 

  • Program Overview provides the teacher with information on program components and a description about i-Ready classroom Mathematics implementation. 

  • Plan is broken down into Unit, Lesson, and Session. 

  • Teach gives information on practice, and differentiation. 

  • Assess includes support for the diagnostic, reports, and data. 

  • Leadership informs the teacher on getting started, building routines, fostering discussions, making connections, and top leader actions. 

• Program Implementation includes numerous supports such as digital math tools, videos, discourse cards, vocabulary, language routines, graphic organizers, games, correlations with standards and practices, etc.

• Each unit has a Beginning of Unit document that provides the teacher with extensive information on Unit Flow and Progression, Unit Resources, Unit Opener, Unit Prepare For, Unit Overview, Lesson Progression, Prerequisites Report Overview, Professional Development, Understanding Content Across Grades, Language Expectations, Math Background, Cumulative Practice, Yearly Pacing for Prerequisites, and Unit Lesson Support. Examples include:

  • Unit Opener, Self Check, “Take a few minutes to have each student independently read through the list of skills. Ask students to consider each skill and check the box if it is a skill they think they already have. Remind students that these skills are likely to all be new to them and that over time, they will be able to check off more and more skills.”

  • Prerequisites Report Overview, “Diagnostic data generates the Prerequisites report, which helps you identify students’ prerequisite learning needs and provides guidance on how to best integrate prerequisite instruction into your grade-level scope and sequence for the year.” These are specific to current students and classes providing valuable data about entry points for students. Note: Diagnostic assessments are an optional additional purchase.

  • Under the Prepare column, there is a Unit and Lesson Support document that provides multiple On-the-Spot Teaching Tips for each Unit. These tips provide information on what to reinforce from prior learning promoting scaffolding to current content.

Materials include sufficient and useful annotations and suggestions that are presented within the context of the specific learning objectives. Throughout each lesson planning information, there is narrative information to assist the teacher in presenting student materials throughout all phases of the unit and lessons. Examples include:

• Program Implementation, Teaching & Learning Resources, Discourse Cards, provides instruction on how to use the Math Discourse Cards. “These questions and sentence starters provide a way to engage all students in meaningful mathematical conversations. These cards will help students initiate, deepen, and extend conversations with partners, small groups, or the whole class. Each card has two questions or sentence starters on it-one on the front and one on the back. With each question, be sure to have students explain their reasoning for their response.”

• Unit 1, Lesson 2, Describe and Compare Length and Height, Session 1, Explore, Discover It, Facilitate Whole Class Discussion, “To allow an opportunity to discuss their answers before sharing with the class, have partners turn and talk. ASK What attributes of the clay can you change? What attributes cannot change? How do you know? LISTEN FOR an explanation of which attributes can and cannot be changed for the clay and encourage children to demonstrate their thinking using the clay. ASK How can you use tall and short or long and short to describe the tower or snake? LISTEN FOR children to say they can use tall to describe the tower and long to describe the snake. They may say that short can describe the snake or the tower. ASK When describing an object, how are the height and length different? LISTEN FOR children to say that height is up-and-down, while length is side-to-side.”

• Unit 4, Lesson 13, Compose Shapes, Session 2, Develop, Apply It, Error Alert, “If children have trouble seeing how two or more shapes compose another shape, have them trace one pattern block at a time and then color the resulting composite shape one color.”

• Unit 7, Lesson 23, Compose and Decompose Teen Numbers With Drawings, Session 3, Develop, Discuss It, Select and Sequence Strategies, “One possible order for whole class discussion: Counting all; Recognizing a full 10-frame as 10 and counting on.”

The materials reviewed for i-Ready Classroom Mathematics Grade Kindergarten 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 Beginning of Unit section for every unit provides an abundance of information for teachers, including sections to support teachers with adult-level understanding of the content:

• Math Background includes Unit Themes, Prior Knowledge, and Future Learning. In the Math Background, as well as throughout the teacher materials, there are insights on the concepts taught, Common Misconceptions, and Error Alerts to watch for when students are incorrectly applying skills. 

• Lesson Progression links each lesson within the current unit to prior and future lessons so teachers know what students need to know to be successful with the current work as well as what the current work is preparing students for. This is important for a teacher’s complete understanding of how to scaffold and bridge the current content. For example, Unit 5, Lesson 16, Lesson Overview, Teacher Edition, Count Within 100 - Full Lesson, Learning Progression:

  • “Previously, earlier in Kindergarten, children learned number names and the count sequence to 80 (counting by 10s and by 1s) and they have begun extending that to 100. They have used one-to-one correspondence counting to determine quantities up to 20 and have used numbers to represent quantities.”

  • “In this lesson, children take the rote counting patterns they have practiced and develop a concrete understanding of the numbers they say when they count. They solidify their rote counting skills to 100 (by 10s and by 1s), including counting on from a number other than 1. Children gain a sense of the magnitude of greater numbers as they count groups of objects to 100 and use their familiarity with 10 as a benchmark number to understand that, just as 20 is 10 and 10 more, the other multiples of 10 each represent yet another 10.”

  • “Later, in Grade 1, children will build on the foundation provided by this lesson to read and write numbers to 120, compare numbers up to 100, and develop an understanding of place value, particularly tens and ones. They will use counting on as a strategy to add and subtract.”

• Understanding Content Across Grades provides explanations of instructional practices as well as information about necessary prior knowledge and concepts beyond the current course for teachers to improve their own knowledge of the subject. For example, Unit 7, Beginning of Unit, Understanding Content Across Grades related to Lesson 24, Teen Numbers and Shapes:

  • Current Lesson, “Insights on: Composing Three-Dimensional Shapes. At this point in the year, children have significant experience with two- and three-dimensional shapes. They can relate the abstract geometric shapes to shapes in their environment. Children should have multiple opportunities to identify, name, and sort individual shapes in their environment as well as discuss the attributes of various solids and flat figures. Children benefit from experiences combining simple shapes into more complex ones to represent objects they encounter in their daily lives. As children draw shapes to match ones they see, they are actively engaging with the defining attributes such as “straight sides that meet at corners” and the fact that different shapes have different numbers of sides. This is a good time to reinforce precise geometric vocabulary as children describe their creations to peers. For example, they may say, “I can make a rectangle out of 6 squares.”

  • Future Learning, “Insights on: Comparing and Decomposing Shapes. As children begin to experiment with part-whole relationships they will begin to recognize that smaller shapes can be combined to make larger shapes. Children will also begin to notice shapes within existing shapes. They should be given ample time to decompose larger shapes to determine what shapes are within them. Children should be given plenty of opportunities to manipulate and explore with both two-dimensional and three-dimensional shapes.”

• Each lesson includes a Reteach section with several pages called “Tools for Instruction” that provide explicit teacher guidance related to the current work and to prerequisite skills. These pages include adult explanations, step-by-step guidance for teaching, and check for understanding. For example, Unit 3, Lesson 7, Adding Numbers Within 5:

  • “Children are learning how to describe and represent addition using models and drawings that refer to real-world situations. This activity helps children see the real-world uses of addition. They classify objects in different ways to see what they can add. The activity also provides practice verbally describing addition situations using addition sentences with words such as and and is.”

  • “Step by Step: 1) Introduce the objects. Give the child five objects as follows: one red crayon, one blue crayon, one blue marker, one red connecting cube, and one red counter. If these are not available, use other objects that can be sorted in at least two different ways. (followed by 3 more prompts) 2) Model and draw addition sentences. (followed by 5 prompts)”

  • “Check for Understanding: Give the child one green connecting cube, one yellow counter, one yellow marker, one green marker, and one green crayon. Have the child sort the objects into two categories, model and draw an addition sentence to describe the situation, and say the addition sentence aloud. For the child who can benefit from additional support, use the table below to help pinpoint where extra help may be needed.’If you observe… the child may… Then try…’”

The materials reviewed for i-Ready Classroom Mathematics Grade Kindergarten meet expectations for including standards correlation information that explains the role of the standards in the context of the overall series.

In Program Implementation, correlation information is present for the mathematics standards addressed throughout the grade level using multiple perspectives. For example: 

• The Correlations document for Content Focus in the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) describes lesson correlation to the CCSSM through multiple lenses. The document identifies the major and supporting areas of focus within the CCSSM, and corresponding lessons that address those standards. Additionally, a table is provided that correlates each lesson with the standards addressed, designating standards as “Focus”, “Developing”, or “Applied” within each lesson. 

• The Correlations Document also identifies the Standards of Mathematical Practice that are included in each lesson; one table is organized by MP, another is organized by lesson. 

• The Unit Review Correlation identifies the associated standard and lesson to each problem within the Unit Review, along with their Depth of Knowledge level. 

• Digital Resource Correlations, Comprehension Check Correlations, and Cumulative Practice Correlations identify the lesson and a statement of the part of the standard it aligns to. 

• The WIDA PRIME V2 correlates the WIDA Standards Framework to examples in the material with descriptions of how they connect. 

• The English Language Arts Correlations provides a table that offers evidence of how the Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts are supported in every lesson and unit of the i-Ready Classroom Mathematics material.

In the Beginning of Unit for each unit, there are numerous documents provided that contain explanations of the role of the specific grade-level mathematics in the context of the series. For example: 

• The Lesson Progression provides a flow chart delineating how each standard in the current lesson builds upon the previous grade levels and connects to future grade levels. This is developed in detail with examples in the Understanding Content Across Grades document. 

• There is a Unit Flow and Progression video for teachers that provides background about the content covered in the unit. 

• The Unit and Lesson Support document provides descriptions of the purpose and unit themes in each unit. For example, Unit 3, Beginning of Unit, Unit Opener, the opening narrative provides the content of the unit, “Purpose This unit introduces children to adding and subtracting within 5. It also introduces them to two‐dimensional shapes. Children draw to show what they already know about these topics. They then reflect on what they learned about these topics at the end of the unit. Unit Themes The major themes of the unit are: Adding one group to another group makes more. When you take away objects from a group, you are subtracting. Two‐dimensional shapes have attributes that can be described. You can identify shapes as flat or solid. Flat shapes make the faces of solid shapes. You can use words to name a shape and describe its position.”

• In every teacher's Lesson Overview, the Learning Progression identifies how the standard is addressed in earlier grades, in the current lesson, next lesson, and in the next grade level. For example, Unit 3, Lesson 7, Overview, Learning Progression, “Earlier in Kindergarten, children practiced counting up to 10 objects in a set to find how many. They compared two sets of up to 5 objects to identify which set has more or less or if both sets have the same. Children also learned that when they count, each number is one more than the number before. In this lesson, children build on their understanding of one more to add within 5. They represent addition using their fingers and manipulatives to find the total. They tell story problems and model them using manipulatives and 5-frames. Children use numbers to write the starting number, the number added, and the total. In future Kindergarten lessons, children will apply their understanding of add-to situations to take away situations. They will use the symbols + and – to form addition and subtraction expressions, and they will extend their addition and subtraction skills to numbers within 10.”

The materials reviewed for i-Ready Classroom Mathematics Grade Kindergarten meet expectations for providing explanations of the instructional approaches of the program and identification of the research-based strategies.

There are thorough explanations of the instructional approaches of the program. These are easily found under Program Implementation and in Classroom Central. For example:

• Program Implementation, Try-Discuss-Connect Routine Resources, is embedded throughout the program. “i-Ready Classroom Mathematics empowers all students to own their learning through a discourse-based instructional routine. Lessons are divided into Explore, Develop, and Refine sessions and are taught over the course of a week. In Explore and Develop sessions teachers facilitate mathematical discourse through a Try-Discuss-Connect instructional routine.” In i-Ready Classroom Central, videos model the six steps of the Try-Discuss-Connect routine as well as an Exit Ticket.

• Program Implementation, User Guide, Protocols for Engagement, describes multiple protocols and identifies the traits each protocol validates to help all students “feel accepted and included. Protocols provide structure for activities so that all students have a chance to think, talk, and participate equally in classroom activities. Each protocol incorporates modes of communication common to one or more cultures and leverages those behaviors for a particular instructional purpose.” For example, “Stand and Share: Students stand when they have something to share with the class. Validates: spontaneity, movement, subjectively, connectedness.” Protocols can be found in the Lesson Overview section of the Teacher Guide.

• i-Ready Homepage, Success Central, Building Community, Promote Collaborative Learning, has resources such as using Lesson 0 to introduce the Try-Discuss-Connect Routine and language routines, questions to support discourse, videos about sharing math ideas, ideas for promoting mathematical practices and creating a positive mindset. 

• i-Ready Homepage, Success Central, has a link in the upper right under the search box called Explore all Resources that has all of the additional resources organized in a list of links by category that provide abundant information, including a section called Program Overview.

Materials include relevant research sources. In Program Implementation, Supporting Research, “i-Ready Classroom Mathematics is built on research from a variety of federal initiatives, national mathematics organizations, and experts in mathematics.” A table describes 16 concepts that are embedded in the program with examples of how and where each is used, an excerpt from the research that supports it, as well as an extensive reference list. Examples include: 

• “The Concrete-Representational-Abstract (CRA) Model is a three-part instructional model that enhances students’ mathematical learning.” This model is built into all i-Ready Classroom Mathematics lessons in the Try It, Discuss It, Connect It, and Hands-On Activities. “Using and connecting representations leads students to deeper understanding. Different representations, including concrete models, pictures, words, and numbers, should be introduced, discussed, and connected to support students in explaining their thinking and reasoning.” (Clements and Sarama, 2014)

• “Collaborative learning (partner or small group) encourages students to present and defend their ideas, make sense of and critique the ideas of others, and refine and amend their approaches.” Lessons provide multiple opportunities for collaborative learning during Discuss It and Pair/Share. “Research tells us that when students work collaboratively, which also gives them opportunities to see and understand mathematics connections, equitable outcomes result.” (Boaler, 2016)

• “An instructional framework supports students in achieving mathematical proficiency and rigor within a collaborative structure to develop a greater understanding of how to reason mathematically.” The Try-Discuss-Connect instructional framework is foundational in this program. “Instructional routines are situated in the learning opportunity itself, providing students with a predictable frame for engaging with the content…”  (Kelemanik, Lucenta, & Creighton, 2016)

• Program Implementation, User Guide, Routines that Empower Students identifies 9 research-based language routines. Each routine includes the purpose, the process, and which part of the Try-Discuss-Connect Routine it can be used with. For example, Say It Another Way is used with Try It, “Why: This routine helps students paraphrase a word problem or text so they know if they have understood it. It provides an opportunity to self-correct or to ask for clarification and ensures that the class hears the problem or story more than once and in more than one way.”

The materials reviewed for i-Ready Classroom Mathematics Grade Kindergarten meet expectations for providing a comprehensive list of supplies needed to support instructional activities. 

The Lesson Overview for the teacher provides a Materials Required column for each lesson on the Pacing Guide; additional materials are listed in the Differentiation column. Any materials that need to be printed are also provided in the Overview, such as bear counters or spinners. For example:

• Unit 1, Lesson 3, Session 2, “Materials: Attribute buttons (16 per group) and presentation slides. Differentiation (only noted in the differentiation section): for each student: attribute buttons (1 pile per group) and Attributes workmat.”

Under Program Implementation, a Manipulatives List provides a document identifying manipulatives needed for each lesson K-8. For example: 

• Manipulative List, Unit 7, Lesson 23, Number cards deck (set of numbers 11-19) (one deck per pair), connecting cubes (19 cubes per pair), and two-color counters (38 counters per pair). 

Program Implementation also includes digital math tools, discourse cards and cubes, activity sheets, data sets, and graphic organizers.

The materials reviewed for i-Ready Classroom Mathematics Grade Kindergarten meet expectations for having assessment information included in the materials to indicate which standards are assessed.

In the Teacher Toolbox, each lesson includes Assess which includes Lesson Quizzes, Activity Based Assessments, and Unit Assessments. Lesson Quizzes, Teacher Guide lists information correlated to each problem: tested skills, content standards, mathematical practice standards, DOK levels, error alerts, problem notes, Short Response Scoring Rubric with points and corresponding expectations, and worked-out problems. For example:

• Unit 5, Lesson 19, Lesson Quiz, Problem 1, “DOK 2, SMP 5, K.OA.A.3.”

Assess, End of Unit, Unit Assessments, Teacher Guide, Forms A and B are provided and include the content item with a solution. Form A includes Problem Notes, worked-out problems, DOK levels, content standards, Scoring Guide, Scoring Rubrics, and Responding to Student Needs. Form B appears to parallel all of the correlations provided for Form A, though it is not labeled. It is noted in the Scoring Guide, “For the problems in the Unit 1 Unit Assessments (Forms A and B), the table shows: depth of knowledge (DOK) level, points for scoring, standard addressed, and lesson assessed by each problem.” For example:

• Unit 1, End of Unit, Assess, Unit Assessment,  Form A, Problem Notes, Problem E, “DOK 2, K.MD.A.2.”

• Unit 4, End of Unit, Assess, Unit Assessment,  Form A, Problem Notes, Problem D, “DOK 1, K.CC.A.3.”

Digital Comprehension Checks “...can be given as an alternative to the print Unit Assessment. For this comprehension check, the table below provides the Depth of Knowledge (DOK), standard(s) assessed, and the corresponding lesson assessed by each problem.” For example:

Program Implementation, Comprehension Check Correlations, Unit 1 Comprehension Check Correlation Guide, Problem 6, “DOK 2, K.G.A.1, SMP 6.”

The materials reviewed for i-Ready Classroom Mathematics Grade Kindergarten meet expectations for including an assessment system that provides multiple opportunities throughout the grade, course, and/or series to determine students' learning and sufficient guidance to teachers for interpreting student performance and suggestions for follow-up.

The assessment system provides opportunities to determine student’s learning that include teacher support for interpreting student performance in the Problem Notes and Recording Sheets provided. Examples include:

• Problem Notes for each problem in the Lesson Quizzes and Form A of the Unit Assessment provide guidance on steps to solve the problem and what students may have done incorrectly. For example:

  • Unit 1, Lesson 2, Assess, Lesson Quiz, Problem B, “Children circle the top chenille stem. The bottom chenille stem is not correct. Children may have confused longer and shorter.”

  • Unit 2, End of Unit, Assess, Unit Assessment, Form A, Problem F, “Children circle the first and last shapes. The second share [is] not correct. Children may have confused rectangle and triangle. The third shape [is] not correct. Children may have misunderstood the prompt. The fourth shape [is] not correct. Children may have confused square and triangle.”

• Lesson Quizzes contain an Activity Based Assessment Recording Sheet to support the teacher in identifying students who have reached instructional outcomes. For example:

  • Unit 4, Lesson 12, Compare Numbers to 10, Assess, Activity-Based Assessment Recording Sheet, a grid is provided to write down names and track the following outcomes: “Correctly compares two groups, Correctly compares two numbers” and the following strategies, “Uses length or 1:1 matching, Uses number path, Uses the count sequence.”

The Lesson Quizzes and Unit Assessments provide guidance to teachers to follow-up with students. The follow up suggestions reference previous work rather than new material. For example:

• Unit 3, End of Unit, Assess, Unit Assessment, Form A, provides a section called Responding to Student Needs. This section directs teachers back to the relevant lessons for review and where teachers can access the Reteach and Extend options. “For students who answer problems incorrectly on the Unit Assessment, choose from the following resources on the Teacher Toolbox for additional support. Reteach Tools for Instruction, Adding Numbers Within 5 (Lesson 7), Describing and Comparing Shapes (Lesson 8), Subtracting Numbers Within 5 (Lesson 9), Adding and Subtracting Numbers Within 5 (Lesson 10) | For children who exceed proficiency on the Unit Assessment, choose from the following activities on the Teacher Toolbox. Extend Enrichment Activities, Make 5 (Lesson 7), Shape Pictures (Lesson 8), Draw Some - Take Some (Lesson 9), Ways to Make a Number (Lesson 10).”

• Unit 4, Lesson 14, Assess, Lesson Quiz provides three types of differentiation for possible follow up depending on student performance: Reteach, Reinforce, and Extend. Implementation Guide, Program Overview, Differentiation, “Reteach: Tools for Instruction provide targeted teacher-led activities to support prerequisite or on-level skills. Reinforce: Learning Activities provide leveled small group collaborative games to reinforce concepts and skills. Extend: Enrichment Activities provide additional challenges through group collaborative activities.”

The materials reviewed for i-Ready Classroom Mathematics Grade Kindergarten meet expectations for providing assessments that include opportunities for students to demonstrate the full intent of grade-level standards and practices across the series. 

There are formative and summative assessments provided as PDFs as well as comparable assessments provided online. Lesson Quizzes and Unit Assessments provided include a variety of item types for students to demonstrate grade-level expectations. For example:

• Fill-in-the-blank

• Multiple select

• Matching

• Graphing

• Constructed response (short and extended responses)

• Technology-enhanced items, e.g., drag and drop, drop-down menus, matching 

Throughout the lessons, there are opportunities to demonstrate critical thinking, develop arguments, or apply learning in a performance task, though these are not typically on the assessments.

The materials reviewed for i-Ready Classroom Mathematics Grade Kindergarten meet expectations for providing strategies and supports for students in special populations to support their regular and active participation in learning grade-level mathematics.

Materials regularly provide strategies, supports, and resources for students in special populations to help them access grade-level mathematics. i-Ready Success Central provides many suggestions and examples for how to accommodate and support special populations. Lessons have sections called Group & Differentiate to help special populations. Lesson quizzes have suggestions for reteaching. Examples of supports for special populations include:

• i-Ready Homepage, Success Central, Plan & Teach, Differentiate provides information to support the teacher in planning for all special populations. Personalized Instruction provides resources for students who have taken the Diagnostic and will have access to online learning and instructional paths tailored to their individual needs to reinforce prerequisite skills and build grade-level skills. Support Small Group Instruction, “Every student can excel in mathematics with the right supports. Check out the resources below to help you plan for, organize, and facilitate small groups so you can meet the various needs of your students.” Support All Learners, “Every student can excel in mathematics with the right supports. Use the resources on this page to find ideas and strategies for adapting your instruction to meet the unique needs and learning styles of all students.” There are several links to documents to support teachers. For example:

  • Supporting Students' Needs – Reference Sheet, provides information regarding “Optional built-in supports embedded in i-Ready Classroom Mathematics that educators can choose from to best meet the needs of their students. These resources can be used to: Scaffold instruction by breaking learning experiences into smaller parts to help students reach higher levels of comprehension and skills acquisition with temporary supports along the way Differentiate instruction to meet individual students’ needs by modifying content, altering the delivery method, and/or providing alternate learning tasks.”

  • Tools for Accessible Instruction – Reference Sheet “Highlights i-Ready Classroom Mathematics supplemental tools and examples of student supports that can be used throughout a lesson and session. Examples of student supports may have some overlap with a student’s IEP/504 plan but should not supersede or contradict it, and they may be useful for students regardless of whether or not they have an IEP/504 plan in place.” For example, during Try It, a suggested support is, “Offer multiple means of representation, engagement, and action and expression such as: highlight important numbers, words, and phrases; Invite volunteers to act out the problem for the class; Offer options for how students express their ideas.” During Discuss It, “Use hand signals to agree, disagree, or share an idea.”

• In Refine, the last session of each lesson, the teacher’s edition provides suggestions to Group & Differentiate, “Identify groupings for differentiation based on the Start and problems 1-3. A recommended sequence of activities for each group is suggested below. Use the resources on the next page to differentiate and close the lesson.” Resources are suggested for groups Approaching Proficiency, Meeting Proficiency, and Extending Beyond Proficiency. 

• At the end of the Lesson Quiz in the teacher’s edition, there is a section for differentiation that provides suggestions for Reteach (Tools for Instruction), Reinforce (Math Center Activity), and Extend (Enrichment Activity). Program Implementation, Program Overview, Differentiation, Reteach, “Tools for instruction are mini-lessons for reteaching lesson concepts.” Reinforce, “Learning Games offer fun, challenging, and personalized practice and help students develop a growth mindset.” Extend, “Enrichment Activities Challenge students with higher-order thinking tasks.”

• i-Ready Homepage, Success Central, Plan & Teach, Differentiate, Accessibility and Accommodations, Create Accessible Experiences with Your Program, Start here, Accessibility and Accommodations Update, “To make i-Ready Classroom Mathematics accessible to the widest population of students, we offer a range of accessibility supports that may also meet the requirements of a number of student accommodations.” The table provided lists the Universal Supports, Designated Supports, and Accommodations that are both embedded and not embedded in the program. For example, embedded supports include audio support, closed captioning, calculator, zoom in/out, highlighting, and more. Available non-embedded supports include Native language translation of directions, noise buffer, alternate response options, scribe, and more.

The materials reviewed for i-Ready Classroom Mathematics Grade Kindergarten meet expectations for providing extensions and/or opportunities for students to engage with grade-level mathematics at higher levels of complexity. 

Materials do not require advanced students to do more assignments than their classmates. Instead, students have opportunities to think differently about learning with alternative questioning, or extension activities. Specific recommendations are routinely highlighted as Teacher Notes within parts of each lesson, as noted in the following examples:

• Each lesson has an Extend: Enrichment Activities column that provides an additional challenge task. For example, Unit 5, Lesson 16, Extend, Sets of Stickers, students are provided with a challenge situation. “Children count and group objects into groups of 11 to 20. Have children count a group of objects, making sure there are 11 to 20 objects. Then have them circle the group. Children repeat this process until all the objects have been grouped into groups of 11 to 20. If children are left with a number of objects that is less than eleven, have them explain how they will adjust the groups so that they are all numbers from 11 to 20.”

• In Explore and Develop sessions in each lesson, the materials contain Differentiation: Extend Deepen Understanding or Challenge for the lesson’s key concepts through the use of discourse with students. For example, Unit 2, Lesson 4: Count, Show, and Write Numbers to 5, Session 2, Develop, Centers, Differentiation, and Practice, Extend, “Use with children who are proficient with number recognition and placement of counters in the 5-frame. Materials: 5-frames, counters, Number and Dot Row Cards (1 to 5)  In pairs, have children take turns selecting a number card. Challenge the children to find all the ways they can arrange counters to show that number in the 5-frame. Have children check their responses by counting out loud as they place the counters in the 5-frame.”

The materials reviewed for i-Ready Classroom Mathematics Grade Kindergarten meet expectations for providing strategies and support for students who read, write, and/or speak in a language other than English to regularly participate in learning grade-level mathematics. 

Guidance is consistently provided for teachers to support students who read, write, and/or speak in a language other than English, providing scaffolds for them to meet or exceed grade-level standards. For example: 

• i-Ready Homepage, Success Central, Plan & Teach, Differentiate, Support All Learners, Supports for English Learners – Reference Sheet explains where to find and how to use all of the supports built into the Teacher Guide for every lesson to “address the strengths and needs of ELs” such as, Build Your Vocabulary, Connect Language Development to Mathematics, Language Objectives, Connect to Community and Cultural Responsiveness, and Connect to Language Development.

• Program Implementation, Program Overview, Integrate Language and Mathematics shows where teachers can access tips for targeted support using Language Routines in the Teacher Guide for every lesson.

• Program Implementation, Program Overview, Language Development and Discourse Support provides “support at the word/phrase, sentence, and discourse levels so that all students can engage in rigorous mathematics and communicate effectively.”

• Program Implementation, User Guide, Resources for Language Development describes nine features that are embedded in the teacher materials to “build academic language of all students, especially English learners. These supports help students learn how to communicate effectively across the language domains.”

• Program Implementation, User Guide, Routines that Empower Students, provides nine language routines. “While these routines support English learners, they are designed to be used by all students as they access mathematical concepts and their growing mathematical understanding.” Three routines, in particular, are differentiated for English Learners: Act it Out, Co-Constructed Word Banks, and Stronger and Clearer Each Time. 

• Program Implementation, User Guide, Support for Academic Discourse describes “a variety of ways to support students in communicating with academic and math-specific vocabulary and language.”

• Program Implementation, Discourse Cards, provide sentence starters and questions to help students engage in conversations with their partners, small groups or the whole class such as “Did anyone get a different answer?; What would you add to what was said?”

• All classroom materials are available in Spanish.

• Program Implementation, Multilingual Glossary is available in Arabic, Chinese, Haitian Creole, Portuguese, Russian, Tagalog, Urdu, and Vietnamese. There is a Bilingual glossary in the student textbook that includes mathematics vocabulary in English and Spanish.

• Beginning of Unit, Connect Language Development to Mathematics, Language Expectations for Differentiation is a chart that “shows examples of what English Learners at different levels of English language proficiency can do in connection with one of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) addressed in this unit. As you plan for this unit, use these examples of language expectations to help you differentiate instruction to meet the needs of English Learners.”

• Beginning of Unit, Build Academic Vocabulary includes a chart of academic words for the units paired with their Spanish cognates. There are three routines provided in Professional Development to support vocabulary development: Math Vocabulary, Academic Vocabulary, and Cognate Support. 

• Each lesson in Lesson Overview, Teacher Guide’s Full Lesson includes Language Objectives, Connect to Culture, and Connect to Language. 

• Session 1 of every lesson uses graphic organizers to help students access prior knowledge and vocabulary they will develop in the lesson. Support for Academic language is used during the “Try-Discuss-Connect Language” routines in each lesson. 

• All sessions throughout the lesson embed support including references back to previously listed items.

The materials reviewed for i-Ready Classroom Mathematics Grade Kindergarten meet expectations for providing manipulatives, both virtual and physical, that are accurate representations of the mathematical objects they represent and, when appropriate, are connected to written methods.

Students have access to both virtual and physical manipulatives throughout the program. For example:

• Program Implementation, Digital Math Tools, are available for students. These tools include Counters and Connecting Cubes, Base-Ten Blocks, Number Line, Multiplication Models, Perimeter and Area, and Fraction Models. Also in Program Implementation, support videos are available for each of the digital tools, explaining how they may be used and their functions. 

• Program Implementation, Manipulative List, Manipulative Kit, includes Baby Bear Counters, Pattern Blocks, Linking Cubes, Number Cubes, GeoSolids, Two-Color Counters, Buttons, Color Tiles, Dice, Spinner, and 0-12 Number Cards.

• Program Implementation, Manipulative List by Lesson has specific manipulatives listed for each lesson. For example, Unit 3, Lesson 7: Connecting cubes, two-color counters, spinner. There is also a Manipulative Suggestions for At-Home Use document that provides ideas for using items commonly found at home or easily created that could be used in place of the actual manipulatives (e.g. Connecting Cubes could be replaced with Lego bricks). 

• Program Implementation, Activity Sheet Resources, K-5 Activity Sheet Resources includes a 178-page document full of visual models such as number lines, graphs, grid paper, graphic organizers, etc. 

Program Implementation, Try-Discuss-Connect Routine Resources, Understanding the Try-Discuss- Connect Instructional Routine, the foundational Try-Discuss-Connect routine is designed to “help children achieve greater mathematical agency by encouraging proficiency and rigor within a collaborative structure. Children develop greater understanding of mathematical representations and solution strategies using think time, partner talk, individual writing, and whole-class discourse. Language routines and teacher moves are built into the Try-Discuss-Connect framework to guide teachers and children in this discourse-based instruction.” For example:

• The Try It “begins with an emphasis on identifying important information that helps children make sense of a problem situation. The Try It section continues as children apply what they learned in the Make Sense of the Problem and begin responding to the problem.” Discuss It “begins when children work in pairs to share their thinking. With a partner, they reason quantitatively and abstractly about the problem situation. The Discuss It section continues as children share their thinking with the class.” During the Connect It section, “Teachers and children first connect and extend understanding they developed from solving the Try It problem and participation in Discuss It. The second part of Connect It, children apply their understanding from the discussion to new situations.”

• “Tip: After selected approaches are discussed, teachers encourage children to look at the strategies another way by having them identify similarities and differences among them. Children explain their thinking and teachers ask other children to critique their reasoning.”

• “Tip: Encourage students to represent and solve problems in more than one way to build flexibility in their thinking.”

The Try-Discuss-Connect routine also integrates the Concrete-Representational-Abstract (CRA) model, for example:

• Try It, “Children analyze the problem in a very focused way to help them begin to develop concrete situations.”

• Discuss It, “Children begin to connect concrete approaches and representational or abstract approaches as they engage in partner discussions.”

• Connect It, “Through the Connect It questions, children connect concrete and representational approaches to more abstract understanding as they formalize their connections.”