5 Ways Pathways Helps Users Design Rigorous Instruction

Designing rigorous standard-aligned instruction is made possible with Goalbook Pathways.

Our vision to help ALL students succeed is built on the idea that classrooms should be flexible learning environments that can accommodate individual learning differences. It is for that purpose that we endeavored to create a product that empowers teachers to design rigorous instruction for all students–Goalbook Pathways. We released Pathways just over a year ago, and we have spent a lot of time working with our district partners trying to make it a tool that really helps educators move the needle of student achievement.

This is a roundup of the top five product updates that will help Pathways users create more rigorous classrooms by deepening their understanding of the standards and connecting leading research to actionable strategies and high quality resources.

1. Language Standards

Demonstration of selecting assessment item from language standards (L.5.1)

Earlier this summer, we released our newest content offering for Goalbook Pathways: Language Standards for grades 3–12 ELA. With our initial release of language resources, we prioritized the areas of grammar and usage conventions, writing conventions, and vocabulary acquisition so that teachers have a holistic collection of resources to incorporate into their instructional sequence. These three areas are the most widely assessed on nationally-normed assessments, and they lay the foundation for developing strong writing skills. We now have hundreds of new model assessment items that align to specific grade-level language standards at the substandard level so that teachers can hone in on a specific skill in a whole class, mini-lesson, or small group intervention.

Check out some of our New Language Pages:

• Grade 3: Capitalization, Punctuation, and Spelling (L.3.2)
• Grade 6: Writing Conventions (L.6.2)
• Grade 9–10: Determine Word Meaning (L.9–10.4)

Learn more about Language Standards in Goalbook Pathways!

2. New ELA Quick Assessments for Reading and Writing

Demonstration of accessing and viewing a high school Reading Quick Assessment (RI.9–10.1 #2)

Our content team has been hard at work adding new ELA Quick Assessments for both reading and writing. These Quick Assessments are short, standards-aligned, and have rich engaging passages. Teachers use them as quizzes, pre- and post-assessments, and exit tickets because they have a range of DOK levels and question types that assess the skills connected to the standard. They are also useful to teachers because they include a rubric and an answer key so that teachers can give student a clear criteria for success.

Demonstration of components of the W.9–10.2 Writing Quick Assessment

Our Writing Quick Assessments include complex text-dependent questions. They are designed to guide students through a writing task that requires them to construct outputs that allow them to showcase specific writing skills — not simply engage in grammatical error analysis.

Follow the links below to access Reading and Writing Quick Assessments:

Writing:

• Grade 3: Compose organized opinion essays with supporting reasons and information. W.3.1
• Grade 6: Create arguments with supporting claims, convincing reasons, and relevant evidence. W.6.1
• Grades 9–10: Write explanatory texts to effectively convey complex information. W.9–10.2

Reading:

• Grade 4: Refer to the text when explaining explicit and inferred information. RL.4.1
• Grade 7: Create an objective summary of a text that includes the central idea and pertinent events. RL.7.2
• Grade 11–12: Analyze how author’s choices and interaction between elements of a story develop in a narrative. RL.11–12.3

Learn more about Reading Quick Assessments!

3. Enhanced Model Student Responses

Demonstration of viewing an assessment item and its enhanced model student response for standard 8.EE.C.7a (Solve Linear Equations).

The assessment items in Goalbook Pathways have gotten a bit of a makeover with enhanced model student responses. In order to adequately reflect the level of rigor expected from students, we focused on the expression of three components:

• Rigor and critical thinking — by including multiple methods to solve a problem
• Conceptual understanding — by including visual representations of problem-solving
• Justification — by including solutions that model student thinking with evidence

These enhanced model student responses will aid in a standards-based approach to planning and executing quality instruction by helping educators visualize student success at every step of the teaching cycle.

Check out some of our enhanced model student responses!

• Grade 4: Identify equivalent fractions: 4.NF.A.1
• Grade 8: Solve a linear equation to identify whether it has one solution or no solution. 8.EE.C.7A

Learn more about our enhanced model student responses!

4. New Math Quick Assessments

High school math Quick Assessment for standard F-IF.1 (Determine if a relation is a function)

Our partners have let us know that our Math Quick Assessments are a great instructional resource because of their versatility. A unique feature of our Quick Assessments is that the questions are written at varying levels of complexity so teachers can strategically plan interventions based on student results. The questions are designed to help teachers make standards-based instruction a reality in their classroom. They are used as a form of formative assessment to monitor student progress on a day-to-day basis, and teachers have the freedom to fit them into the ideal part of their schedules. There are 21 New Math Quick Assessments for Grades 6 to 8. As our partners continue to give us feedback, we will continue to add more Quick Assessments to Pathways.

Check out a few of our New Math Quick Assessments:

• Grade 3–4: Determine equivalent fractions when given the same point on two or more number lines. 3.NF.A.3a
• Grade 8: Represent and compare proportional relationships. 8.EE.B.5
• Grades 9 -12: Determine if a relation is a function. F.IF.A.1

5. New Decodable Passages

Examples of New Decodable Passages

Our new Decodable Passages are short passages that allow early readers to practice targeted phonics skills. For example, Ben’s Pet practices consonant-vowel-consonant (CVC) words that include a “short e” sound. You’ll see this phonics pattern repeated in many words throughout the passage. In “Browse Passages”, after the title of each passage, the specific skill that is targeted is shown in parentheses. Teachers can easily find passages that match the particular skills they’re teaching.

Explore some of our NEW Decodable Passages!

• CVCe, long O: Hope and Cole
• Vowel team, oa: Toad and Goat
• Vowel team, ay: Ray’s Day
• CVC, short e: Ben’s Pet

If teachers are going to cultivate equitable classrooms, they have to challenge all of their students — those who are struggling and those who already get it. However, it’s difficult to continuously implement emerging best practices and to find the tools and resources to apply the practice consistently. This is why schools and districts are using Goalbook Pathways.

We combine research-based strategies and instructional resources so that teachers can ensure ALL students succeed. We are committed to continuously improving the user experience so that teachers can deliver quality instruction every day.

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