3rd Grade - Gateway 1

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 3 meet the expectations for central texts being of publishable quality and worthy of careful reading and considering a range of student interests.

Core texts consider a range of topics of interest to Grade 3 students, including the ocean, space, art, immigration, poetry, fables, and mythology. Many of the core texts are written by award-winning authors and are worthy of careful reading.

Examples of central texts that are worthy of careful reading include the following:

• Module 1:
  
  • The Fantastic Undersea Life of Jacques Cousteau, by Dan Yaccarino
  • Giant Squid: Searching for a Sea Monster, by Mary M. Cerullo and Clyde F. E. Roper
  • Amos & Boris, by William Steig
• Module 2:
  
  • Moonshot, by Brian Floca
  • One Giant Leap, by Robert Burleigh
  • Zathura, by Chris Van Allsburg
• Module 3:
  
  • Coming to America: The Story of Immigration, by Betsy Maestro
  • Grandfather’s Journey, by Allen Say
  • Family Pictures, by Carmen Lomas Garza
• Module 4:
  
  • Alvin Ailey, by Andrea Davis Pinkney
  • A River of Words: The Story of William Carlos Williams, by Jen Bryant
  • When Marian Sang, by Pam Muñoz Ryan

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 3 meet the expectations for materials reflecting the distribution of text types and genres required by the standards.

Core Texts include a mix of informational and literary texts. Each module centers on a theme that integrates many types of text and media to support the learning of the topic. There are two science-related modules at this grade level (the ocean, space) as well as a social studies topic (immigration). The final module focuses on the topic of art. What is important to note is that there is a wide array of informational and literary text integrated throughout every module no matter the topic or theme. Additional supplementary texts are included resulting in a wide distribution of genres and text types as required by the standards, including historical fiction, poetry, fables, non-fiction, biographies, websites, journal articles, speeches, plays, and historical accounts.

The following are examples of literature found within the instructional materials:

• Module 1- Amos & Boris, by William Steig
• Module 2- Zathura, by Chris Van Allsburg
• Module 3- The Keeping Quilt, by Patricia Polacco
• Module 4- When Marian Sang, by Pam Muñoz Ryan

The following are examples of informational text found within the instructional materials:

• Module 1- The Fantastic Undersea Life of Jacques Cousteau, by Dan Yaccarino
• Module 2- One Giant Leap, by Robert Burleigh
• Module 3- Coming to America: The Story of Immigration, by Betsy Maestro
• Module 4- Alvin Ailey, by Andrea Davis Pinkney

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 3 meet the expectations for texts having the appropriate level of complexity for the grade according to quantitative analysis, qualitative analysis, and relationship to their associated student task. Most texts are aligned to the complexity requirements outlined in the Common Core Standards, with text-complexity rubrics appearing in Appendix A of the Great Minds Teacher’s Guide. All major text qualitative/quantitative information is identified in Appendix A, while supporting texts are referenced in Appendix E. Among the texts that are not within the grade-level band, a qualitative feature analysis gives additional insight as to the appropriateness of their placement in the curriculum. The texts that have a Lexile level above the grade-level band show ample support for accessing the text during the reader and task components.

For example:

• Module 2, Lessons 27-29: Zathura, by Chris Van Allsburg (literary, 540L): This text has an accessible concept. It is a science fiction text supported with illustrations. Sentence structure is predictable and easy to follow. It contains descriptive language, appropriate for third grade students.
• In Module 1, Lesson 4-9 students read and reread the picture book Amos & Boris, by William Steig (AD810L). It is a narrative text within the complexity band (although at the top of the stretch band), is initially adult-directed, and includes context clues and a strong narrative for additional support.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 3 meet the expectations that materials support students’ increasing literacy skills over the course of the school year. Series of texts are at a variety of complexity levels appropriate for the grade band.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 3 meet expectations for supporting students' ability to access texts with increasing text complexity across the year. The texts, both anchor and supporting, fall within the grade-level band, and they appear to provide students access to increasingly rigorous texts over the course of the school year. As seen in the quantitative and qualitative analyses of the included texts, there is clear, defined scaffolding of the texts to ensure that students are supported to access and comprehend grade-level texts at the end of the year. While the rigor of text is appropriate in aggregate over the course of the school year, students will engage with texts at varying levels unit to unit and quarter to quarter in a structure that may provide support for accelerating their literacy growth.

Over the course of the school year, students will engage in appropriately rigorous texts in aggregate but unit to unit and quarter to quarter there is broad variance in how they engage with these texts. Some examples that demonstrate this include the following:

• In Module 1, students read the informational text Giant Squid: Searching for a Sea Monster. This text is quantitatively measured as NC1090L. In the same module, students engage with the informational text Shark Attack, 820L. At the end of the module, students are expected to be able to construct a multi-paragraph essay explaining why artists and scientists explore the sea. The consistency of these quantitative measures, coupled with the consistency of the qualitative features of these texts, will support students' accelerating their reading abilities.
• In Module 3, students read the literary text Tea With Milk with a quantitative measure of AD450L, and Grandfather’s Journey with a AD650L. At the end of the module, students are expected to be able to write an essay explaining a similarity and a difference between the immigration experience of the main characters in these texts along with supporting details from both.

The qualitative measures of these texts are appropriate, as are the associated tasks and questions. However, teachers may need extra support and study to help Grade 3 students navigate these variations unit to unit. The supporting texts also consistently increase in complexity across the year.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 3 meet the expectations for materials being accompanied by a text complexity analysis and rationale for educational purpose and placement in the grade level. Text complexity rubrics appear in Appendix A of Great Minds Teacher’s Guide. All major text qualitative/quantitative information is identified in Appendix A, while supporting texts are referenced in Appendix E. This includes a description of text that provides rationale for why the text was selected.

Examples include, but are not limited to:

• Module 1: Amos and Boris, by William Steig: “This text was selected because of its superb literary quality. Engaging and resourceful characters, poetic descriptions of setting, heroic rescues, and unlikely but undying friendships will keep students turning pages. The rich and complex vocabulary makes it a challenging text for Grade 3 students."
• Module 2: The rationale is provided in the overview of the unit states, “Having a strong knowledge of the history of these understandings will deepen students’ knowledge of human history, provide an awareness of how scientific understanding can change and deepen, and serve as the basis for forming opinions about modern-day space exploration.”

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 3 meet the expectations for core texts and supporting materials providing opportunities for students to engage in a range and volume of reading to achieve grade-level reading.

Each unit includes lessons with supplementary texts of varying lengths. These texts are read independently, in groups, aloud, and silently, offering multiple opportunities for students to engage in a range and volume of reading.

• In Module 2, when presented with a historic video, students are asked to, “Explain a point of view that is different or similar from that of John F. Kennedy’s using evidence from the speech, We Choose the Moon.”
• In Module 3, when reading Coming to America, by Betsy Maestro, students are asked to, “Analyze how an author engages and orients the reader in a narrative.”

Instructional materials clearly identify opportunities for students to build fluency to become independent readers at the grade level.

• In Module 1, Lesson 24, students echo a reading passage and spend the week rehearsing to read fluently to other classes and/or groups. They have an anchor chart that is used to, “Remind students of the elements of fluent reading and of what it means to read accurately.”

The materials reviewed for Grade 3 meet the expectation that most questions, tasks, and assignments are text-specific and require students to engage with the text directly and to draw on textual evidence to support both what is explicit as well as valid inferences from the texts. Questions draw the reader back into the text and support students’ literacy growth over the course of the school year. Reading and writing (and speaking and listening) are done in a cohesive learning environment. Students read and reread to write and discuss. The materials provide opportunities for evidence-based discussions and writing. Examples of student directions include but are not limited to, “Look closely”, “Provide details”, “Compare”, “Write a summary”, “What do you notice?” and, “Write an Introduction.”

Below are examples of text-dependent/specific questions included in each module:

• Module 1, Lesson 11, “What do the similarities and differences between the illustrations on pages [2–3] and [34–35] suggest about the content of the book?”
• Module 2, Lesson 2, “According to the article, where and when did Galileo live?”
• Module 3, Lesson 15, “How does the author’s note add to your understanding of the text and paintings in Family Pictures?”
• Module 4, Lesson 28, “What similarities and differences do you notice about the opening and closing illustrations?”

Instructional materials reviewed for Grade 3 meet the expectation that they should contain sets of high-quality sequences of text-dependent questions and activities that build to a culminating task that integrates skills to demonstrate understanding. Each module begins with an Essential Question; each module also contains multiple Focusing Questions that deal with the core text. Each of the daily lessons work toward answering the Focusing Questions, while building the skills and knowledge needed to complete the End-of-Module Task. Supplementary texts help to build knowledge while integrating skills such as speaking, listening, reading, and writing.

For example, in Module 1, the Essential Question asks, “Why do people explore the sea?” Then, during the module lessons, students read, discuss, and write to build knowledge through various activities and routines. Students work towards understanding the Focusing Questions to build knowledge and complete the culminating task.

Examples of Focus Questions to guide students through this module are:
• Lesson 1-9, “How do artists explore the sea?”
• Lesson 10-19, “How and why do scientists explore the sea?”
• Lesson 19-30, “How and why do scientists explore sea creatures?”

The learning culminates into an End-of-Module Task. For this module, it directs students to refer to all of the material read throughout the lessons and states, “Your task: For an audience who has read and studied these texts the way you have, write two paragraphs in which you explain why an author, artist, or scientist explored the sea. Develop your explanation with evidence from one of the texts.”

In Module 3 the Essential Question asks, “How do stories help us understand immigrants’ experiences?” The module opens using the text, Grandfather’s Journey by Allan Say and examples of the Content Framing Questions for that text include, “What does a deeper exploration of point of view reveal in Grandfather’s Journey?” (Lessons 3-4) and, “What is the central message of Grandfather’s Journey?”(Lesson 6).

Examples of the Focus Questions to guide students through this module are:
• Lesson 1-15, “What challenges do immigrants face in a new country?”
• Lesson 16-24, “Why do people immigrate to America?”
• Lesson 24-33, “How do immigrants respond to challenges in a new country?”
• Lesson 34-35, “How do stories help us understand immigrants’ experiences?”

The learning culminates into an End-of-Module Task. In this module students will plan a written response to a narrative prompt that demonstrates “acquisition of academic and content vocabulary,” complete with textual evidence. The End of Module Task: “Write a short narrative in which they describe a small imagined moment based on one of four module texts. The narratives incorporate student knowledge of the immigrant experience and specific techniques for writing fictional texts.”

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 3 meet the expectations providing students frequent opportunities to practice academic vocabulary and syntax in their evidence-based discussions. Each module gives the students ample opportunity to hold evidence-based discussions with Think-Pair-Share, Socratic Seminars, Jigsaw discussions. Gallery Walk/follow-up discussions, etc. The materials offer scaffolds to help students hold academic conversations, including evidence to support students’ claims. Scaffolds include sentence starters, evidence graphic organizers, and teacher-facilitated discussions.

Academic vocabulary instruction is found throughout the modules. Teachers use multiple strategies in introducing, discussing, and using new vocabulary. Each module contains Appendix B, entitled Vocabulary, which clarifies the category in which each word is listed. The materials vocabulary is presented in three categories: Content Vocabulary, Academic Vocabulary, and Text-Critical Vocabulary. Students create vocabulary journals and also participate in Vocabulary Deep Dives and Style and Conventions Deep Dives.

Examples of how students have opportunities for evidence-based discussions that encourage the modeling and use of academic vocabulary include:

Module 1:

• Lesson 28, “In this fourth and final Socratic Seminar of the module, look for students to participate more robustly, agree and disagree effectively, and use domain-specific vocabulary with limited teacher support.” [and with practice], “Students assume more of the responsibility for developing thoughtful classroom discussions in which they ask and answer text-based questions and build upon one another's ideas.”

Module 2:

• Lesson 16, “According to this sentence, how are some mountains formed? What do you think eruption means?”
• Lesson 19, Style and Conventions Deep Dive: “How do these prepositional phrases add detail and dimension to the story?”

Module 3:

• Lesson 5, “How do the word choices that describe what Grandfather saw and his feelings about America help you understand Grandfather’s decision about where to live?”
• Lesson 9, “How does the author show the difference between Masako’s words and the author’s words?”

Module 4:

• Lesson 6, “Reread the final paragraph of Alvin Ailey, modeling fluent reading, as students follow along. In groups, students determine the meaning of any unknown words.”
• Lesson 10, “Think-Pair-Share, and ask: “Why would an author choose these words and phrases instead of simply saying, ‘The river is flowing’? What effect do these words create?”

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 3 meet the expectations for materials supporting students’ listening and speaking about what they are reading and researching with relevant follow-up questions and evidence.

Speaking and listening work requires students to gather evidence from texts and sources. Opportunities to ask questions and hold discussions with peers and teachers about research, strategies and ideas are present throughout the year.

Within this curriculum there are multiple opportunities for speaking and listening that include whole group discussions and small group discussions. In addition, through the lessons there are instructions for the teacher and tips on facilitating whole group, small group, and partner speaking and listening. Students specifically practice these skills in every module in Socratic Seminars. Materials include speaking and listening rubrics, as well as the Socratic Seminars. There is a tracking form that helps the teacher track students’ ability to perform skills with speaking, listening, and reading (citing evidence).

Module 1, Lesson 9:

• Students are given the opportunity to share their thinking about how artists explore the sea and to explain how they used details to express a central message about the sea. Students then utilize the Praise-Question-Suggestion strategy to clarify.

Module 2, Lesson 1:

• Students observe the image of Vija Clemins’ Starfield, record their notice and wonderings, and then share their observations and questions with the class.

Module 3, Lesson 3:

• Given the prompt, “Should traditions change?” students evaluate a peer and receive feedback based on a speaking and listening checklist.

Module 4, Lesson 29:

• Students gather evidence in small groups and then participate in a Socratic Seminar. In addition, students synthesize all of their research on Jackson Pollock or Marian Anderson and prepare to deliver an oral presentation in Lesson 30.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 3 meet the expectations that materials include a mix of on-demand and process writing and short, focused projects. Students write both "on demand" and "over extended periods" throughout every module.

Materials include short and longer writing tasks and projects. Writing tasks and projects are aligned to the grade-level standards being reviewed. Throughout each module students engage in many methods of writing including note-taking, checklists, response journals, graphic organizers, short answer, and longer essay construction.

Module 1:

• In Lesson 21, students record the paragraph in their journals and use the Painted Paragraph Strategy to check that they have described their knowledge and to check that they have used a fact, a definition, and a detail as evidence.
• In Lesson 17, students are asked to write and illustrate two paragraphs explaining to younger students why and how scientists explore the sea. “In the first paragraph, explain why scientists explore the sea, using evidence from both Ocean Sunlight: How Tiny Plants Feed the Seas and The Fantastic Undersea Life of Jacques Cousteau.”
• In Lesson 6, students copy the teacher model in their journals to use during independent writing. Students use the model and the Boxes and Bullets graphic organizer to create a summary of the text Ocean Sunlight: How Tiny Plants Feed the Ocean.

Module 2:

• In Lesson 19, students write in their Response Journals to explain how the words fragile and permanent relate to the Apollo 11 space mission.
• In Lesson 11, students gather and sort evidence into categories to review what they have learned by reading Starry Messenger and Galileo’s Starry Night and then use a Writing Planner to plan an explanatory essay.

Module 3:

• In Lesson 20, student pairs choose one strategy for determining the essential meaning of Coming to America and work in pairs to complete a graphic organizer in their Response Journals. At the end of the lesson students use their big ideas to write about the essential meaning of Coming to America.
• In Lesson 9, students use sentence frames to compare and contrast in Grandfather’s Journey. “In Grandfather’s Journey, by Allen Say, Grandfather and the narrator are alike. For example, they both _____. On the other hand, the two characters are different because Grandfather _____."

Module 4:

• In Lesson 6, students use a graphic organizer to collect notes as they research what inspired Alvin Ailey. The organizer requires a source, a detail, and a quote.
• In Lesson 13, students work on a paragraph planner to develop and organize ideas in preparation to write. It contains a prompt, “How does Melissa Sweet, the illustrator of A River of Words, use art to express herself?” The planner breaks the process into components of an introduction, a topic sentence, evidence, elaboration, and conclusion.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 3 meet the expectations for materials providing opportunities for students to address different text types of writing that reflect the distribution required by the standards.

Materials provide frequent opportunities across the school year for students to learn, practice, and apply writing using evidence. Writing opportunities center around students’ analyses and claims developed from reading closely and working with sources. Materials provide opportunities that build students' writing skills through the use of checklists, models and rubrics. Students are given opportunities for instruction and practice in a variety of genres addressed in the standards over the course of the school year.

Module 1:

• In Lesson 9, students write an explanatory paragraph to explain how the author, poet, or artist uses details to express a central message.
• In Lesson 11, students compose an opinion paragraph in the form of a journal entry from Tilly’s first-person point of view, supporting Tilly’s opinion with a text-based reason and evidence.

Module 2:

• Students practice key parts of explanatory writing culminating in the End-of-Module Task when they are asked to write a four-paragraph essay expressing opinion about the most important things people have done to learn about space.
• In Lesson 12, students write informative/explanatory paragraphs to explain how Galileo helped people learn about space.

Module 3:

• In Lesson 12, students write an informative/explanatory essay to explain an important similarity and difference between the immigration story of two main characters.
• In Lesson 24, students write a narrative that identifies why an immigrant came to America and describes the immigrant’s feelings upon first seeing the Statue of Liberty.

Module 4:

• In Lesson 12, students choose an object from ordinary life and write a poem in the style of William Carlos Williams.
• In Lesson 32, students use research notes to plan an essay explaining why the life and work of a particular artist is important.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 3 meet the expectations that materials include frequent opportunities for evidence-based writing to support careful analyses, well-defended claims, and clear information. Materials provide frequent opportunities across the school year for students to learn, practice, and apply writing using evidence. Writing opportunities are focused around student’s analyses and claims developed from reading closely and working with sources. Materials provide opportunities that build students' writing skills over the course of the school year.

The following examples demonstrate evidence-based writing opportunities across all four modules:

Module 1:

• In Lesson 1 students are asked to explain the elements that identify the central message of the poem, The Sand Willow.
• In Lesson 9, students use text evidence to support the answer to the question: “What caused people to change their beliefs about the Earth and the Sun?”

Module 2:

• In Lesson 2, students are asked to use facts, definitions and details to develop a paragraph explaining what happened when Galileo challenged tradition.
• In Lesson 9, students work in pairs to identify at least two big ideas in Starry Messenger, providing evidence to support their responses.

Module 3:

• In Lesson 3, students review and highlight evidence they plan to use as supporting points to prepare for a written analysis of Grandfather.
• In Lesson 12, students write an essay explaining one important similarity and one important difference between the immigration experiences of the two main characters of the texts Grandfather’s Journey and Tea with Milk, supporting their ideas with details from both texts.

Module 4:

• In Lesson 2, students re-read the story, Emma’s Rug, annotating the text on sticky notes to gather evidence to answer the question, “What inspires Emma?”
• In Lesson 28, students select one of the essential meanings of When Marian Sang recorded on the sentence strips and provide one piece of evidence to support that essential meaning in their Response Journals.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 3 meet expectations for explicit instruction of the grammar and conventions standards as applied in increasingly sophisticated contexts, with opportunities for application both in and out of the context. Each lesson has a deep dive in either vocabulary or style as well as conventions for 15 minutes of instruction, allowing students to practice the skills throughout the modules. Writing rubrics include grammar and conventions, and there are checklists at the End-of-Module tasks to assess application of conventions listed in the language standards.

• Module 1:
  • Lesson 25: Students practice applying the adding -ed rule.
  • Lesson 28: Explain the function of adjectives in general and in particular their function in sentences. Students study the use of adjectives to describe an ibis, then generate adjectives and construct sentences, using them to describe a squid.
• Module 2:
  • Lesson 7: Deep Dive: Style and Conventions: Using the text Starry Night students rewrite a simple sentence as a compound sentence using a coordinating conjunction with correct punctuation
  • Lesson 25. Students are introduced to the prefix dis-. Students determine how the prefix dis- changes the meaning of a root word and allows students to connect the prefix back to previous lessons.
• Module 3:
  • Lesson 8: Students get parts of a sentence and ‘Mix and Mingle’ with others to make a complete sentence with subject-verb agreement. Students then identify sentences from the text Tea with Milk, highlighting singular and plural subjects and verbs in different colors.
  • Lesson 26: Students are introduced to how to properly conjugate the verb “to be.” Students work on conjugating a verb following the rules with reminders that not all verbs follow the same pattern.
• Module 4:
  • Lesson 7: Use sentence frames to identify comparative and superlative adjectives.
  • Lesson 33: Using a checklist for revision to improve writing, students peer-evaluate and revise an essay for spelling, grammar, and style.

The materials reviewed for Grade 3 meet the criteria for materials, questions, and tasks guiding students to read with purpose and understanding and to make frequent connections between acquisition of foundation skills and making meaning from reading. The Appendix B: Vocabulary found within the materials states that this curriculum “focuses on teaching and learning words from texts. Students develop an awareness of how words are built, how they function within sentences, and how word choice affects meaning and reveals an author’s purpose.” In the Vocabulary Deep Dives, students learn prefixes, suffixes, and word meanings. The Vocabulary Deep Dives lessons use the anchor and supplemental texts and materials to reinforce connections in order to help the student generalize the skill within the context of what they are learning.

Module 1

• Lesson 14: “How do the text and illustrations on pages 8–9 clarify the meanings of the words bulky and tethered?”
• Lesson 18: Students identify connections between words used to describe Jacques Cousteau’s response to the ocean and the words' use in real life.
• Lesson 27: Guide students to recognize the meanings of these words from the context of the text and images. The teacher is to provide definitions for unknown words if the context—both text and illustration—does not provide sufficient support for inference.
  

Module 2

• Lesson 7: “Based on what you know about the meaning of the word accomplished and -ment, what is the meaning of the word accomplishment?”
• Lesson 23: The teacher is to display the following sentence from One Giant Leap: “Then the Eagle begins to descend—to where no human has ever been.” Students are then asked, “How do context clues and your knowledge of word parts establish a relationship between ascent and descent?”
  

Module 3

• Lesson 1: “Knowing the meaning of prefixes, suffixes, and roots helps students decode the meaning of words, just as letter sounds help readers figure out how to pronounce words.”
• Lesson 4: “How does knowing the meaning of the word narrator and the meaning of the suffix –ion clarify the meaning of the word narration?”
  

Module 4

• Lesson 7: The teacher is to display the following sentences, based on the text of Alvin Ailey: “It seemed like the hottest day ever in Navasota, Texas. Navasota was a small town. Lula’s voice grew stronger as she sang the morning hymn.” In their Response Journals, students complete the following sentence frames: I know _____ is a comparative adjective because it ends in _____. I know _____ is a superlative adjective because it ends in _____.
• Lesson 25: “How does your knowledge of Jackson Pollock and the context of these sentences help you clarify the meaning of the word rebel?”

The materials reviewed for Grade 3 meet the criteria for providing students frequent opportunities to practice and achieve reading fluency in oral and silent reading, as well as to read on-level prose and poetry with accuracy, rate appropriate to the text, and expression.

Within the lessons, fluent reading is modeled, and students have ongoing opportunities to engage in partner reading, choral reading, echo reading and repeated reading. There are a variety of resources that include fluency instruction, fluency practice, and student performance checklists for self and peer/adult. Within each module, fluency passages are also assigned as homework for repeated practice over multiple days and include a checklist for self-reflection and listener feedback.

Module 1:

• Lesson 4: Students receive direct instruction on reading with fluency and accuracy including but not limited to the key points of articulation of words, phrasing, and rate.
• Lesson 24: Echo read the passage. Students spend the week rehearsing so students are prepared to read fluently in front of another group of students.
  

Module 2:

• Over multiple lessons, homework fluency passages are assigned for repeated practice over several days.
• Lesson 23: Students echo read the speech and practice meaningful chunking.
  

Module 3:

• Lesson 1-2: The teacher reads Grandfather’s Journey aloud, modeling the elements of fluent reading as students follow along and listen for answers to their questions. In small groups, students reread Grandfather’s Journey.
• Lesson 20: Students read Fluency Homework (Handout 16A) three to five times aloud at home to a parent in order to practice fluent reading. Students focus on all elements of fluent reading. Students write a short reflection about their fluency and set new fluency goals on the back of the sheet.
  

Module 4:

• Lesson 17: Students choral read The Great Figure, located in A River of Words, and Willow Poem.
• Lesson 24: Students independently read for thirty minutes and record their reading on a Reading Log. Students read the fluency passage aloud three to five times at home to a parent in order to practice fluent reading, focusing on all elements of a fluent reader. Students and listeners record their work.