Kindergarten - Gateway 1

JUMP Math materials for Kindergarten meets the expectations for assessing grade-level content. The program does not provide any designated summative assessments, yet it does give suggestions as to what could be used as assessments.

• Page A-11 in the TE states, “The secret to bringing an entire class along at the same pace is to use continuous assessment.”
• On page A-11 in the TE, the publisher states, “ JUMP Math materials are designed to allow for continuous formative assessment.” In addition they state, “The JUMP Math Kindergarten materials provide four levels of assessment for students. Each lesson contains a variety of questions that can be used for formative assessment during the lesson. The activity at the end of the whole-class lesson can be used for more full assessing every student, even those who might be reticent in groups. The accompanying pages of the AP Book can be used to verify that students understood the lesson….Finally, activity centers allow further exploration and integration of materials. Teachers can take advantage of the smaller groups in the activity centers to assess and reinforce if necessary.” While JUMP Math Kindergarten does not contain a more formal assessment system, it does provide options that assess grade level standards.

The instructional materials reviewed for Kindergarten meet the expectations for spending the majority of class time on the major clusters of each grade. Overall, approximately 76 percent of class time is devoted to major work of the grade.

The materials for Kindergarten include 14 Units. In the materials there are 133 lessons. The supporting clusters were also reviewed to determine if they could be factored in due to how strongly they support major work of the grade. There were some connections found between supporting clusters and major clusters.

Three perspectives were considered: 1) the number of units devoted to major work, 2) the number of lessons devoted to major work, and 3) the number of instructional days devoted to major work including days for unit assessments.

The percentages for each of the three perspectives follow:

• Units– Approximately 71 percent, 10 out of 14;
• Lessons– Approximately 76 percent, 101 out of 133; and
• Days– Approximately 76 percent, 101 out of 133.

The number of instructional days, approximately 76 percent, devoted to major work is the most reflective for this indicator because it represents the total amount of class time that addresses major work.

The instructional materials for JUMP Math Kindergarten meet the expectation that supporting content enhances focus and coherence simultaneously by engaging students in the major work of the grade. When appropriate, the supporting work enhances and supports the major work of the grade level.

Examples where connections are present include the following:

• K.G.B supports the major work of K.CC.B.
  
  • In Teacher Resources Part 1 Unit 3 Lessons 6 and 7, students are learning about squares and rectangles while also using their counting skills.
• K.MD.B supports the major cluster of K.CC.B.
  • In Teacher Resources Part 1 Unit 6 Lessons 2 and 3, students are sorting cubes and cards while also counting objects.
  • In Teacher Resources Part 1 Unit 6 Lesson 4, students are asked to count each group and how many are in each group after sorting in different ways.

The instructional materials reviewed meet the expectations for having an amount of content designated for one grade level that is viable for one school year in order to foster coherence between grades. Overall, the amount of time needed to complete the lessons is approximately 143 days which is appropriate for a school year of approximately 140-190 days.

• The materials are written with 14 units containing a total of 133 lessons.
• Each lesson is designed to be implemented during the course of one 45 minute class period per day.
• There is a unit at the beginning of the Kindergarten book called Getting Ready for Kindergarten Math: Songs, Stories, and Games. This unit includes 10 additional songs, games, and stories without attached lesson plans.

The instructional materials reviewed for Kindergarten meet the expectation for being consistent with the progressions in the Standards. Overall, the materials completely address the standards for this grade-level and provide all students with extensive work on grade-level problems. The materials make connections to content in future grades.

The materials develop according to the grade-by-grade progressions in the Standards. Content from future grades is not always clearly identified but often related to grade-level work. The Teacher Resources contain sections that highlight the development of the grade-by-grade progressions in the materials, occasionally identify content from future grades, and state the relationship to grade-level work.

• At the beginning of each unit, "This Unit in Context" provides a description of connections to concepts that have been taught earlier in the year and that will occur in future grade levels. For example, "This Unit in Context" from Unit 8, Operations and Algebraic Thinking: Addition within 10, of Teacher Resources Part 2 describes how "students build on Unit 7 by adding numbers with a total less than or equal to 10." Connection to future content is stated, but standards are not made specific. "The final two lessons begin to develop facility with pairs that make 10, an important tool for addition and subtraction in higher grades."

The materials give all students extensive work with grade-level problems. The lessons also include "Extensions," and the problems in these sections are on grade-level.

• Whole class instruction is used in the lessons, and all students are expected to do the same work throughout the lesson. Individual, small-group, or whole-class instruction occurs in the lessons.
• The problems in the Assessment & Practice books align to the content of the lessons, and they provide grade-level problems that "were designed to help students develop confidence, fluency, and practice." (page A-38, Teacher Resources)
• In the Extensions sections of the Lessons, students get the opportunity to engage with more difficult problems, but the problems are still aligned to grade-level standards. For example, the problems in Lesson 4 of Unit 6 in Teacher Resources Part 1 engage students in sorting shapes which is still aligned to K.MD.3 and K.CC.5,6,7.

Kindergarten JUMP Math materials meet the expectations for fostering coherence through connections at a single grade level, where appropriate and required by the Standards. Overall, the materials include learning objectives that are visibly shaped by the CCSSM cluster headings, and the materials sometimes connect two or more clusters in a domain or two or more domains in a grade when appropriate.

In the materials, the units are organized by domains and are clearly labeled. For example, Teacher Resources Part 1 Unit 1 Counting and Cardinality: Numbers 1 to 5 and Teacher Resources Part 2 Unit 7 Operations and Algebraic Thinking: Addition within 5 are shaped by the Counting and Cardinality and Operations and Algebraic Thinking Domains. Within the units, there are goals for each lesson, and the language of the goals is visibly shaped by the CCSSM cluster headings. For example, in Teacher Resources Part 2 Unit 10 Lesson 5 , the goals for the lessons include language concerning work with numbers 11-19 to gain foundations for place value, "Students name recognize and begin to write the numbers 14, 15, 16," , and these lessons are aligned to K.NBT.A. Also, in Teacher Resources Part 2 Unit 8 Lesson 22, the goals for the lessons include language concerning operations and algebraic thinking, “Given expressions that show addition students add within 10 using objects or pictures," and these lessons are aligned to K.OA.A.

Materials sometimes include problems and activities that serve to connect two or more clusters in a domain or two or more domains in the grade.

• Some lessons connect clusters within a domain. For example, Teacher Resources Part 1 Unit 1 Lesson 5 addresses clusters K.CC.A and K.CC.B by having students use number names and count the number of objects.
• Some lessons connect standards from 2 domains. For example, Teacher Resources Part 1 Unit 3 Lesson 2 addresses standards K.G.1,2 and K.CC.5 by having students identify and count shapes.
• Student work in Teacher Resources Part 1 Unit 6 Lesson 3 by sorting shapes by attribute (K.MD.3) and by counting the sizes of the groups and then ordering the groups by size (K.CC.C).
• In Teacher Resources Part 1 Unit 6 Lesson 5, students sort shapes by counting the number of corners (K.CC.B, K.MD.B) and classify shapes into categories (K.G.4).