Kindergarten - Gateway 1
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Standards and Research-Based Practices
Alignment to Standards and Research-Based Practices for Foundational Skills Instruction| Score | |
|---|---|
Gateway 1 - Partially Meets Expectations | 81% |
Criterion 1.1: Print Concepts and Letter Recognition (Alphabet Knowledge) | 9 / 10 |
Criterion 1.2: Phonological Awareness | 12 / 12 |
Criterion 1.3: Phonics | 18 / 20 |
Criterion 1.4: Word Recognition and Word Analysis | 4 / 8 |
Criterion 1.5: Decoding Accuracy, Decoding Automaticity and Fluency | 4 / 8 |
The instructional materials reviewed for Kindergarten meet expectations for materials provide explicit instruction for letter identification of all 26 letters (uppercase and lowercase) and materials engage students in sufficient practice of letter identification. Students have opportunities to practice forming the 26 letters (upper and lowercase). Materials provide limited instructional support in general concepts of print. Materials provide explicit instruction in phonological awareness through systematic modeling across the K-1 grade band and provide practice of each newly taught sound (phoneme) and sound pattern across the K-1 band. Materials meet the criteria for materials emphasize explicit phonics instruction through systematic and repeated modeling and also include frequent practice opportunities for students to decode words that consist of common and newly-taught sound and spelling patterns. Students have opportunities to build/manipulate/spell and encode grade-level phonics and materials provide opportunities for application and encoding of phonics in activities and tasks. Materials partially meet the criteria for materials provide frequent opportunities for students to practice decoding phonetically regular words in a sentence. Materials partially meet the criteria for materials include systematic instruction of high-frequency words and opportunities to practice reading of high-frequency words to develop automaticity. Materials partially meet the criteria for materials explicitly teach word analysis strategies based on the requirements of the standards and provide limited practice opportunities for students to apply word analysis strategies. Materials partially meet the criteria for materials provide teacher guidance to support students as they confirm or self-correct errors and emphasize reading for purpose and understanding.
Criterion 1.1: Print Concepts and Letter Recognition (Alphabet Knowledge)
Materials and instruction provide embedded support with general concepts of print, and systematic and explicit instruction and practice for letter recognition.
The instructional materials reviewed for Kindergarten meet the criteria for materials provide explicit instruction for letter identification of all 26 letters (uppercase and lowercase) and materials engage students in sufficient practice of letter identification. Materials provide explicit instruction to print and to practice forming the 26 letters (uppercase and lowercase). Materials partially meet the criteria for materials provide instructional support for general concepts of print and connect learning of print concepts to books and provide cumulative review of print concepts, letter identification, and printing letters.
Indicator 1a
Letter Identification
Indicator 1a.i
Materials provide explicit instruction for letter identification of all 26 letters (uppercase and lowercase) (K).
The materials reviewed for Kindergarten meet the criteria for materials provide explicit instruction for letter identification of all 26 letters (uppercase and lowercase). (K)
The materials contain isolated, systematic, and explicit instruction for all 26 letters. At the beginning of the program, three letters are taught each week, and by Week 12, all 26 letters have been introduced.
Materials contain isolated, systematic and explicit instruction for all 26 letters (recognize and name uppercase and lowercase). Examples include, but are not limited to:
- In the Teacher’s Guide, page 17, students participate in an activity called Word or Letter. The teacher writes words and letters on the board, and students circle the letters and underline the words.
- In the Teacher's Guide, the Big Reveal on page 38, the teacher holds up the puzzle piece and says, “This is the mop piece. It represents the letter m.”
- In the Teacher's Guide Concept 2, Week 1, Day 3, pg. 30, during the Big Reveal the teacher says, “On Day 1, we learned the puzzle piece ‘dig’. It represents the letter d. On Day 2, we learned the type puzzle piece, it represents the letter t.” The teacher holds up the hat puzzle piece, and says, “This represents the letter h.”
There is a defined sequence for letter instruction to be completed in a reasonable time frame over the school year. Examples include, but are not limited to:
- Each week, students learn three new letters and complete letter identification activities such as Word or Letter, Writing Letters Activity, and Letter Matrix. These activities start during Week 3 and end in Week 12. By Week 12, students will have practiced all 26 letters. For example, in Week 5, Day 3, the teacher models and students practice uppercase letter I and lowercase letter i.
Indicator 1a.ii
Materials engage students in sufficient practice of letter identification.(K)
The materials reviewed for Kindergarten meet the criteria for materials engage students in sufficient practice of letter identification.
The materials and activities provide students with frequent opportunities to engage in practice identifying, locating, and naming all 26 uppercase and lowercase letters. The students have explicit activities in Week 3 through Week 12 that assist them in mastering identification of uppercase and lowercase letters.
Materials provide students with frequent opportunities to engage in practice identifying, locating, and naming all 26 letters (uppercase and lowercase). Examples include, but are not limited to:
- In the Fluency Notebook, page 2, students engage in repeated readings of the poem “The Alphabet Song” during Week 2.
- In the Teacher’s Guide, Day 1, during the Big Reveal, the teacher leads the students in saying the alphabet by pointing out the consonant and short vowel puzzle pieces.
- In the Teacher's Guide, Concept 1, Week 2, Day 1, page 16, the teacher writes: popcorn, y, quiet, fort and d on the board. Students come to the board and circle the letters and underline the words.
- In the Teacher's Guide, Concept 1, Week 2, Day 2, page 17, students say the alphabet, and the teacher points to the consonants and the short vowel puzzle piece. Students tell a partner one letter. In the Learner’s Notebook, page 90, students locate and circle the upper and lowercase letters j, l and o.
- In the Teacher’s Guide, page 62, during the Big Reveal, the teacher holds up the puzzle piece that correlates with the letter g and says, “We learned this letter yesterday. It represents the letter g.” Then, students do the motion for the gum puzzle piece together.
Indicator 1a.iii
Materials embed letter identification practice in meaningful print use.(K)
The materials reviewed for Kindergarten meet the criteria for materials embed letter identification practice in meaningful print use.
Materials include activities for students to practice tasks and activities that apply letter identification. There is an alphabet poem students read all week. Following weekly word and picture sorts, the teacher labels items in the classroom that represent taught letters of the alphabet.
Materials contain a variety of tasks that apply letter identification and naming of all 26 letters (uppercase and lowercase) to meaningful print use (e.g. initial letter of a child’s name, environmental print, letter assortments, alphabet books, shared writing). Examples include, but are not limited to:
- In the Teacher’s Guide, page 61, and Learners Notebook, page 43, students complete the weekly sort by cutting and sorting picture and word cards by letter (g, p, e). Pictures include grass, pets, elephant, goat, poodle, empty, grapes, popsicle, egg, garden, pen, elk, Grace, Pat, and Ella.
- In the Teacher’s Guide, page 65, students complete the Fluency Drill. Students examine a letter chant, search for the letter b, and circle and produce the /b/ sound as they find it.
- In the Teacher’s Guide, page 79, following weekly sort, the teacher labels items in the classroom that represent focus letters for the sort.
Indicator 1a.iv
Materials provide explicit instruction to print and to practice forming the 26 letters (uppercase and lowercase).(K-1)
The materials reviewed for Kindergarten meet the criteria for materials provide explicit instruction to print and to practice forming the 26 letters (uppercase and lowercase).
Materials include opportunities for the teacher to model and explain how to correctly form each of the letters. There is consistent explicit instruction on how to print and practice all of the letters during different parts of the lessons.
Materials include clear directions for the teacher concerning how to explain and model how to correctly form each of the 26 letters (uppercase and lowercase). Examples include, but are not limited to:
- In the Teacher’s Guide, page 29, students complete the Grab and Write Routine. Using word lists, students identify the first letter of the word and then write it on the paper. The teacher is prompted on page I-44 of the instructional routine to model the routine for students.
- In the Teacher’s Guide, page 79, the teacher uses the Handwriting Routine and models for students how to write the letters.
- In the Teacher’s Guide, page 121, there is explicit instruction on the formation of uppercase and lowercase v.
- In the Teacher’s Guide, page 128, in the Handwriting Check Routine, the teacher models each of the letters introduced during the week’s lessons.
Materials include frequent opportunities for students to practice forming all of the 26 letters (uppercase and lowercase). Examples include, but are not limited to:
- In the Teacher’s Guide, page 29, students complete the Grab and Write Routine by writing their list of words on handwriting paper.
- In the Teacher’s Guide, page 66, Review Patterns of the Week, students write the letters on their partners’ backs with their finger. Students form the letters g, p, and e.
- In the Teacher’s Guide, page 79, the materials state that on page 62 of their Learner’s Notebook students write three uppercase and three lowercase w, n and i.
- In the Teacher’s Guide, page 84, students complete the Formation, Writing Letters activity on page 65 of their Learner’s Notebook. Students form two lines of uppercase Q and two lines of lowercase q.
- In the Teacher’s Guide, page 103, students complete a Handwriting Check. The teacher asks students to turn to page 82 in the Learner’s Notebook. The teacher models and students form three of the following letters: uppercase X, lowercase x, uppercase K, lowercase k, uppercase O, and lowercase o.
Materials include frequent opportunities for students to practice forming letters using multimodal and/or multisensory methods. Examples include, but are not limited to:
- In the Teacher’s Guide, page I-52, the instructional materials contain a routine in which students color-code their writing. Students write the first letter of the word in pencil. Then, they use a marker, crayon, or colored pencil to write the spelling pattern.
- In the Teacher’s Guide, page 66, Handwriting Check, after the teacher models the formation of letters, students write g’s, p’s, and e’s in both uppercase and lowercase forms.
- In the Teacher’s Guide, page 79, students tell a partner how to form the letters for the week's pieces from this week’s pieces, w, n, and i. Students then write the letters on their partners’ backs with their fingers.
Indicator 1b
Materials provide instructional support for general concepts of print and connect learning of print concepts to books (K-1) and provide cumulative review of print concepts, letter identification, and printing letters. (K-early Grade 1)
The materials reviewed for Kindergarten partially meet the criteria for materials provide instructional support for general concepts of print and connect learning of print concepts to books (K-1) and provide cumulative review of print concepts, letter identification, and printing letters. (K-early Grade 1).
There are limited routines embedded in the program to teach general print concepts. The Puzzle Pieces program has decodables, poems, and chants, but the materials do not contain explicit instruction of all print concepts standards. Some routines help students understand that letters make up words; however, there are no explicit routines in which the teacher states that print is written from left to right or that spoken words correlate to sequence of letters. The materials do not include explicit instruction on the organization of print concepts of directionality, spoken words correlating to sequences of letters, or spacing within or between words.
The materials contain limited daily review opportunities during which the teacher reminds students about previously learned letter names, letter identification, and letter formation from the previous week.
Materials include limited lessons, tasks, and questions for all students about the organization of print concepts (e.g. follow words left to right, spoken words correlate sequences of letters, letter spacing). Examples include:
- In the Teacher’s Guide, page I-16, the Supported Blending Routine explains that the teacher places one finger under the first spelling in the first word (e.g place one finger under m for the spelling /m/), says the remainder of the word, and then drags her finger underneath all of the spelling in the word. This lesson does not explicitly teach directionality of print.
Materials include limited physical books (teacher-guided, such as big books) that are suitable for teaching print concepts. Examples include:
- In the Fluency Guide, page 27, students use their Fluency Notebook which contains the following passages: “Buzz,” “The Bug at Dusk,” “Jan’s Map,” and “Jan and Dan at Camp.”
Materials include no instruction about the organization of print concepts (e.g. follow words left to right, spoken words correlate sequences of letters, letter spacing) in the context of a book.
- No evidence found
Materials do not include opportunities for students to engage in authentic practice using print concepts in the context of student books.
- No evidence found
The materials do not contain periodic cumulative review opportunities during which the teacher reminds students about previously learned grade level print concepts, and students practice the print concepts.
- No evidence found
The materials do not contain periodic cumulative review opportunities during which the teacher reminds students about previously learned letter naming, and students practice identifying previously learned letters.
- No evidence found
The materials contain limited periodic cumulative review opportunities during which the teacher reminds students about previously learned letter formations, and students practice forming the letters. Examples include:
- In Teacher’s Guide, page 73, the Big Reveal, the teacher reviews previously learned letter formations for the letter w.
- In Teacher’s Guide, page 125, the Big Reveal, the teacher reviews previously learned letter formations for the letters v and h.
Criterion 1.2: Phonological Awareness
Materials emphasize explicit, systematic instruction of research-based and/or evidence-based phonological awareness.
The instructional materials reviewed for Kindergarten meet the criteria that materials have frequent opportunities for students to engage in phonological awareness. Materials provide explicit instruction in phonological awareness through systematic modeling across the K-1 grade band and provide practice of each newly taught sound (phoneme) and sound pattern across the K-1 band.
Indicator 1c
Materials have frequent opportunities for students to engage in phonological awareness activities during Kindergarten and early Grade 1.
The Kindergarten materials reviewed meet the criteria that materials have frequent opportunities for students to engage in phonological awareness activities through Kindergarten and early Grade 1.
The Kindergarten Puzzle Piece Phonics program includes a variety of activities for rhyming, blending, segmenting, and manipulating sounds orally. Quick, two-minute activities are provided for daily practice of oral language skills. The teacher tells students about the concept, models how to do the skill, and then directs students to practice the skill. Lessons begin with rhyming in Concept 1 and move to blending and segmenting throughout the Concepts. The activities start with teacher modeling followed by students responding orally. Students practice blending, segmenting, and manipulating sounds for grade-level standards throughout the Concepts. Students engage in blending activities in which they read words to other students that blend cvc words together. Students engage in oral practice that provides daily activities for distinguishing long and short vowels and isolating and pronouncing single-syllable words. The materials outline daily lesson activities provided in the phonemic awareness exercises in the Teacher’s Guide with models provided and examples for use in the instruction. However, the phonemic awareness exercises often employ “choice” responses that do not require the students to manipulate or produce sounds/syllables. Furthermore, because students choose the correct sound, the format of the task allows them to respond correctly 50% of the time by chance. “Production” responses provide opportunities for students to manipulate and practice sounds. A phonemic awareness skill is generally taught for a week with no measure of whether mastery has been established before introducing the next level of phonemic awareness tasks. The skills that are taught are introduced in simplified contexts and are not often incorporated into more complex tasks.
Materials include a variety of activities for phonological awareness. For example:
- In the Teacher’s Guide, page 33, during the Review Patterns of the week, students find a partner and tell their partner the names of the week’s pieces, dig, type, and hat. They tell their partner the sounds of the week’s pieces, /d/, /t/, and /a/.
- In the Teacher’s Guide, page 71, during the Phonemic Awareness activity, students listen to the sounds in a word and put the sounds together to form a word.
- In the Teacher’s Guide, page 150, during the Phonemic Awareness activity, students change the initial sound of a word to a different sound.
There are frequent opportunities for students to practice phonological awareness. Examples include, but are not limited to:
- Daily lessons include activities to practice phonemic awareness in oral exercises at the beginning of each lesson for two to three minutes.
- In the Teacher’s Guide, page 336 during the Phonemic Awareness Listen activity, students hear a word and then change the initial sound to form two rhyming words.
- In the Teacher’s Guide, page 8, students identify pairs of rhyming words and then practice the format for 10 consecutive days through Concept 1, Week 2, Day 5, page 20.
- Phoneme segmentation, i.e., the student is expected to pronounce the separate phonemes in a word given orally, is taught and reviewed throughout the program.
- In the Teacher’s Guide, pages 368-372, students segment sounds and say the whole word when the teacher says a word.
- In the Teacher’s Guide, pages 392-395, students segment sounds and say the whole word when the teacher says a word.
- Sound comparison and contrast tasks, in which students identify words with similar or different beginning, middle, or ending sounds, are limited to identifying whether a word has a long or short vowel sound. In the Teacher’s Guide, page 411, students determine whether the vowel sound in a given word is long or short.
- Oral blending tasks occur in 2 types of exercises: (1) Students blend word parts, and (2) the teacher breaks down words into individual sounds, and the students put the sounds together to form a word. For example, in the Teacher’s Guide, page 33, students blend word parts to say the whole word when the teacher has broken the word into 2 parts.
Indicator 1d
Materials provide explicit instruction in phonological awareness through systematic modeling across the K-1 grade band.
The materials reviewed for Kindergarten meet the criteria for materials provide explicit instruction in phonological awareness through systematic modeling across the K-1 grade band.
The materials in the program provide students with explicit modeling by the teacher in rhyming, blending syllables in spoken words, and isolating sounds. The teacher demonstrates blending, segmenting, and manipulating phonemes that align with grade-level standards. Throughout the program, examples and tasks are modeled for students at the beginning of each phonemic awareness exercise when initial instruction is occurring. Modeling is phased out in later review lessons when students have mastered the concept.
- Students count, pronounce, blend, and segment syllables in spoken words.
- In the Teacher’s Guide, page I-17 the routine for blending is explained. “The Blending Routine takes ten minutes or less, and is done on Days 1-4 beginning in Concept 3. Students look at a word, say the sounds of each spelling pattern within the word, and put them back together to decode the word.”
- Phoneme segmentation, i.e., the student is expected to pronounce the separate phonemes in a word given orally, is taught and reviewed throughout the program.
- Teacher’s Guide, Concept 9, Week 2, Days 1-3, pages 368-372 requires the students to segment sounds and say the whole word when the teacher says a word.
- Teacher’s Guide, Concept 9, Week 4, Days 1-3, pages 392-395 requires the students to segment sounds and say the whole word when the teacher says a word.
- Students blend and segment onsets and rimes of single-syllable spoken words.
- In the Teacher’s Guide, pages 26-44, the teacher identifies the onset and rime for words, and students blend and say the word.
- In the Teacher’s Guide, pages 71-91, the teacher identifies the sounds in words, and students blend the sounds and say the word.
- Students recognize and produce rhyming words.
- Rhyming is modeled in exercises, such as on pages 8-20 of the Teacher’s Guide. However, there is no explicit instruction on what rhyming means or why words rhyme. The concept of rhyming is taught through the examples or non-examples being presented. Each of these lessons model one example and one non-example, and they use the same examples in each lesson.
- In the Teacher’s Guide, Concept 4, Week 1, Days 1-4, pages 215-220.
- In the Teacher’s Guide, Concept 6, Week 1, Days 1-5, pages 268-273.
- Students isolate and pronounce the initial, medial vowel, and final sounds (phonemes) in three-phoneme (consonant-vowel-consonant, or CVC) words.
- In the Teacher’s Guide, page 96, the teacher models the individual sounds in the word bat.
- In the Teacher’s Guide, page 368, the teacher models saying the sounds in map, /m/ /a/ /p/.
- Students add or substitute individual sounds (phonemes) in simple, one-syllable words to make new words.
- In the Teacher’s Guide, pages 148-154, the teacher says a word and tells the student to change the initial sound and make a new word (e.g.,“For example, if I say ‘cat,’ change the initial sound to /b/, you say ‘bat.’”).
- In the Teacher’s Guide, page 151, the teacher models changing the initial sounds of words to a different sound. For example, during Phonemic Awareness, the teacher models changing the /l/ in lad to /f/ to make the new word fad.
- In the Teacher’s Guide, page 194, students practice final sound substitution. During Phonemic Awareness, the teacher models changing moss to mob, tad to tap, rub to rut, pat to pad, and lick to lid.
- In the Teacher’s Guide, page 206, students practice medial sound substitution. During Phonemic Awareness, the teacher models changing punt to pant, hip to hop, got to get, head to had, and pop to pup.
Materials provide the teacher with examples for instruction in syllables, sounds (phonemes), and spoken words called for in grade-level standards. Examples include, but are not limited to:
- Each phonemic awareness skill is taught using a specified instructional format with follow-up activities provided in the Learner’s Notebook. Each of these daily instructional lessons provides the teacher with examples to use when teaching the routines and activities specified in each lesson. For example,
- In the Teacher’s Guide, page 121, teachers are provided a list of words to say (hug, Tom, clap, add, right, punt, hi, slip), and students tell how many sounds they hear.
- In the Teacher’s Guide, page 360, teachers are provided a list of words to say (clap, top, drop, step, lip, cup, pup, map, hip, flap), and students identify the vowel sound they hear in each word.
- In the Teacher’s Guide, page 115, during the Supported Blending exercise, teachers are directed to discuss the -ot and -ump word families and review sounds from the previous weeks.
- In the Teacher’s Guide, page 114, students participate in the Phonemic Awareness activity. The teacher says a word, and students break the word into parts. The materials include examples for the teacher that illustrate how the words should be broken up.
- In the Teacher’s Guide, page 368, the teacher completes the Phonemic Awareness Routine. The teacher says the word, and students tell the teacher the sounds in the words. For example, if the teacher says map, the students say /m/, /a/, /p/.
Indicator 1e
Materials provide practice of each newly taught sound (phoneme) and sound pattern across the K-1 band.
The materials reviewed for Kindergarten meet the criteria for materials provide practice of each newly taught sound (phoneme) and sound pattern across the K-1 band.
The materials provide practice for different phonemes. Practice is provided on a daily basis through the Phonemic Awareness Routine. The teacher models, and then students practice. In most activities, students respond orally to the teacher’s question/direction. Later in the materials, students are asked to give a thumbs up or down if the words rhyme or make the motion for short vowel sounds.
Materials include systematic, explicit instruction on new phonemes and provide ample opportunities for students to learn and practice each new phoneme called for in grade level standards. Examples include, but are not limited to:
- In the Teacher’s Guide, page I-15, the learning outcomes for the materials indicate that students will: listen for rhyming words, isolate initial sounds in words, segment words into sounds, orally break words into syllables, change initial, medial and final sounds in words, compare and contrast spoken words, and identify short and long vowels.
- In the Teacher’s Guide, page 148, during Phonemic Awareness, students change the initial sound of a word to a different sound and say the word. For example, the teacher says cat and then gives the direction to change the initial sound to b to make the word bat.
- In the Fluency Notebook, page 9, students practice the sounds /g/, /p/, and /b/ with chants (g g g Gum! g g g Gum! The ____ gave me gum! g g g Gum! g g g Gum! The ___ gave me gum!)
Materials include a variety of multimodal/multisensory activities for student practice of phonological awareness. Examples include, but are not limited to:
- In the Teacher’s Guide, pages I-10 to I-12, the materials provide descriptions of the puzzle pieces that come with the program and how they can be used to reinforce the concepts taught. Each puzzle piece has a picture prompt and color coding to provide additional visual prompts on how the sounds are used and linked together. The Big Reveal Routine, described in the introduction to the program and used in every lesson of the program, teaches a motion for students to connect to the sound or sound combination for the puzzle piece that is the focus of weekly instruction.
- In the Teacher’s Guide, page 273, students are asked to determine if two words presented orally rhyme. Students are directed to give a thumbs-up if the words rhyme and a thumbs-down if they do not. Students are asked to determine if the following pairs of words rhyme: his/hip, fit/kit, hint/lint, hid/did, lid/flip.
- In the Learner’s Notebook, page 23, Weekly Sort, students sort picture cards according to their initial sound of /m/, /s/, and /a/ (mouse, soap, apple, map, sat, ant, movie, seed, ax, maze, snail, add, Monday, Saturday, Adam).
Criterion 1.3: Phonics
This criterion is non-negotiable. Materials must achieve a specified minimum score in this criterion to advance to the next gateway.
Materials emphasize explicit, systematic instruction of research-based and/or evidence-based phonics.
The instructional materials reviewed for Kindergarten meet the criteria for materials emphasize explicit phonics instruction through systematic and repeated modeling. Materials include frequent practice opportunities for students to decode words that consist of common and newly-taught sound and spelling patterns and provide brief daily opportunities for students to review previously taught phonics skills. Materials meet the criteria for materials include frequent practice opportunities for students to build/manipulate/spell and encode grade-level phonics, including common and newly-taught sounds and spelling patterns and provide application and encoding of phonics in activities and tasks. Materials partially meet the criteria for materials provide frequent opportunities for students to practice decoding phonetically regular words in a sentence.
Indicator 1f
Materials emphasize explicit phonics instruction through systematic and repeated modeling.
The materials reviewed for Kindergarten meet the criteria for materials emphasize explicit phonics instruction through systematic and repeated modeling.
Students participate in sound sorts during which they read and tap out the words and then place the words under the correct heading. The Spell It Out activity provides a picture on the left hand side of the page in their Learner’s Notebook, and students use their knowledge of sounds to write out the words. Students have opportunities to read the sounds in their Fluency Notebooks and during activities such as Read and Trade and Act It Out.
Materials contain explicit instructions for systematic and repeated teacher modeling of all grade-level phonics standards. Evidence includes, but is not limited to:
- Students have opportunities to demonstrate basic knowledge of one-to-one letter-sound correspondences by producing the primary sound of many of the most frequent sounds for each consonant. For example:
- In the Teacher’s Guide, page 50, Supported Blending, the teacher displays the following words on the board one line at a time and facilitates a discussion about the blending focus after each line (line 1: cow, cat, cut: Discuss initial sound of /k/, line 2: cake, cup, clip: Discuss initial sound of /k/).
- Students have opportunities to associate the long and short sounds with the common spellings (graphemes) for the five major vowels. For example:
- In the Teacher’s Guide, page 90, students complete the Dictation Routine for the words quilt, rabbit, inchworm, Friday, and radio. During this routine for words 1 and 2, the teacher says the words and says a sentence. The students say the first vowel sound in the word, point to the first vowel, and then write the first vowel. In words 3-5 the teacher says the word, uses it in a sentence, and then says, “Write the first sound or vowel sound you hear in the word.”
- Students have opportunities to distinguish between similarly spelled words by identifying the sounds of the letters that differ. For example:
- In theTeacher’s Guide, page 434, students complete a Quick Switch and manipulate words to make new words. Students identify the vowel sounds to create new words. For example, students change pin to pine, pine to pane, pane to pan, and pan to pen.
Lessons provide teachers with systematic and repeated instruction for students to hear, say, encode, and read each newly taught grade-level phonics pattern. Examples include, but are not limited to:
- The Teacher’s Guide provides systematic and repeated opportunities for students to hear, say, decode and encode each newly taught phonics pattern through the following sections of each lesson: Phonetic Awareness, The Big Reveal, Blending, and Dictation. Independent practice activities from the Learner’s Notebook and reading passages from the Fluency Notebook provide students with additional practice. Spelling Dictation and Quick Switch Routines provide daily practice for students to encode words.
- In the Teacher’s Guide, page 254, the lesson begins with a phonemic awareness activity during which students change the initial sound of words and produce rhyming words.
- The phonemic awareness activity is followed by The Big Reveal in which the previous week’s short e families (-et, -ed, -en) are reviewed before introducing the current week’s short e families (-ell, -eck, -est).
- The current week’s focus short e families are then practiced in the Blending section of the lesson and in the Learner’s Notebook, page 191.
- The Spelling Dictation and Quick Switch Routines are practiced with the focal elements. Then, students turn to page 187 (Group 1) or 189 (Group 2) to complete a sorting activity independently.
- The last section of the lesson incorporates the Fluency Notebook, page 31, for contextual practice with the focus families.
- In the Teacher’s Guide, page 370, students hear a word and then tell the teacher all of the sounds in that word. The words are: ram, hem, plum, stem, sum, dim, Tom, swim, jam and gum.
- In the Learner’s Notebook, page 196, students read sentences with -ell and -est words and then circle the sentence that goes with the picture.
- In the Fluency Notebook, page 36, during the fluency section, students read the stories “Bud in the Tub” and “Zoo Trip.”
Indicator 1g
Materials include frequent practice opportunities for students to decode words that consist of common and newly-taught sound and spelling patterns and provide opportunities for students to review previously taught phonics skills.
The materials reviewed for Kindergarten meet the criteria for materials include frequent practice opportunities for students to decode words that consist of common and newly-taught sound and spelling patterns and provide brief daily opportunities for students to review previously taught phonics skills.
The materials include opportunities for students to decode words daily. The Teacher’s Guide provides daily activities to decode words in both decontextualized and contextualized practice activities. Blending activities require students to put the words back together after decoding each sound. Fluency Notebooks provide contextualized practice on a daily basis. In addition, students are provided independent activities to practice the focus elements presented in each lesson.
Lessons provide students with frequent opportunities to decode (phonemes, onset and rime, and/or syllables) words using newly taught grade level phonics pattern. Evidence includes, but is not limited to:
- In the Teacher’s Guide, page 272, the materials present words in a blending format, and students read the words. Students then practice the sight words for the week both in isolation and in a sentence for contextualized practice. Students read the corresponding poems in the Fluency Notebook, page 32.
- In the Teacher’s Guide, page 342, students participate in the Sorting with Words Routine. They take out their words, tap out the sounds, read the word, and then place it under the correct heading.
- In the Teacher’s Guide, page 407, the teacher presents words in a blending format, and students read the words. They then practice the sight words for the week both in isolation and in a sentence for contextualized practice. Students read the corresponding poems in the Fluency Notebook, page 42.
Lessons provide students with frequent opportunities to read complete words by saying the entire word as a unit using newly taught decoding grade level phonics. Evidence includes, but is not limited to:
- In each lesson of the Teacher’s Guide, the students are required to read the word as a unit after using the Blending Routine to decode the word.
- In the Teacher’s Guide, page I-26, Sorting With Separate Picture and Word Cards is a five to ten minute activity done on Days 1-4. Students match pictures to printed words that represent each picture. They then sort the pictures and words under headers that represent the weekly focus patterns.
- In the Teacher’s Guide, page 74, students read one or more of the following chants: “Wiggle,” ”No,” and “Zip.” The teacher circulates and provides support as needed.
- In the Teacher’s Guide, page 309, students complete the Read and Trade activity during which they read their list of words and then trade them with a partner. Students complete this activity until the teacher says stop or when they have read all of their words.
Lessons provide frequent opportunities for students to apply grade level phonics when decoding common sound and spelling patterns. Evidence includes, but is not limited to:
- Students are taught the letter/sound patterns for each of the phonetic elements and common spelling patterns and are then provided daily practice on the focal element for that week’s lessons.
- In the Teacher’s Guide, page I-43, during the Highlighter Hunt, students identify the focus pattern within each weekly word. Students will:
1. Lay each sort header out in front of them.
2. Take one word at a time out of their bags.
3. Say the word out loud.
4. Identify the focus pattern within the word.
5. Highlight the letters that make up the focus pattern.
- In the Teacher’s Guide, page 329, students complete a Spelling Check activity during which the teacher says the words and students write the words the teacher says.
- In the Teacher’s Guide, page 433, students complete the Blending Routine in which there is a list of words on the board. The teacher says, “Sound,” then moves his/her hand to the middle of the word and says, “Word.” The students read the word based on the spelling pattern they have learned during the week.
Indicator 1h
Materials provide frequent opportunities for students to practice decoding phonetically regular words in a sentence.
The materials reviewed for Kindergarten partially meet the criteria for materials provide frequent opportunities for students to practice decoding phonetically regular words in a sentence.
Materials provide explicit routines for teachers to use in blending words. During each day’s blending lesson, students have the opportunity to practice decoding phonetically regular words in a sentence. Correlated readings in the Fluency Notebook provide examples of words containing the week’s focal elements. Each day, students practice reading the passage in the Fluency Notebook. Although the materials provide frequent decoding practice opportunities for students, the program does not provide teachers with explicit instruction on teaching students how to decode words in context.
Materials provide explicit, systematic practice for decoding phonetically regular words in a sentence. Examples include, but are not limited to:
- In the Teacher’s Guide, page 148, the program introduces instruction on reading sentences. The focus elements are short a and short e for the entire week of the program. Although students read chants in the Fluency Notebook during previous lessons, explicit instruction on reading in context was not provided.
- In the Teacher’s Guide, page 148, materials introduce the sentence,”The hat is red”, followed by Day 2, “I can tap.” Day 3’s sentence is, “The cat is bad” and the sentence for Day 4 reads, “The sled is flat.”
- Each of these lessons, Days 1-5, references page 23 in the Fluency Notebook. While these selections practice short a and short e words, the teacher is not provided with explicit instruction on teaching students to read in context. The instructions state students read the page. The teacher will have students read to a partner or will pull a group of students together if they need additional help.
- In the Teacher’s Guide, page 283, the teacher writes a sentence on the board and helps students to decode any challenging words and practice word attack skills. Students read the provided sentence silently. Then, they chorally read the sentence. The teacher places his or her hand below each word as s/he chorally reads the sentence with students.
- In the Teacher’s Guide, page 393, students complete the Dictation Routine with the sentence, “The dog is lost.” After the teacher says all the words in the sentence, the teacher goes back through the sentence and writes each word. Students check every letter. The teacher reviews the focus pattern, says the sight word, writes it, and points to the sight word on the wall.
Lessons provide students with frequent opportunities to decode words in a sentence based on grade level phonics. Examples include, but are not limited to:
- In the Teacher’s Guide, page 195, students learn short i and short u. During the fluency segment of the lesson, students use their Fluency Notebook to read short u and i words in sentences. There are four different short passage. Each sentence in the fluency practice has a short i and a short u word in it.
- In the Teacher’s Guide, page 272, during the Blending Routine, students read the sentence, “The rip was very big.” During the week, students study -ip words.
- In the Teacher’s Guide, page 386, students read a sentence and circle the picture that matches the sentence.
Indicator 1i
Materials include frequent practice opportunities for students to build/manipulate/spell and encode grade-level phonics, including common and newly-taught sound and sound patterns.
The materials reviewed for Kindergarten meet the criteria for materials include frequent practice opportunities for students to build/manipulate/spell and encode grade-level phonics, including common and newly-taught sounds and spelling patterns.
Students have a varying number of routines that allow them frequent practice for building, manipulating, and encoding grade level phonics. Each lesson in the Teacher’s Guide provides opportunities for students to spell/encode words through spelling dictation activities and the Quick Switch Routine. On Day 5 of each week, students complete a spelling check to assess their encoding skills. Routines included as part of the Puzzle Piece Phonics materials that provide opportunities for students to build/manipulate/spell and encode grade-level phonics include: Dictation, Quick Switch, Spelling Checks, Spell It Out, Color-Code Writing, Partner Spell, Rainbow Write. Teacher modeling is included.
The materials contain teacher-level instruction and modeling for building/manipulating/spelling and encoding words using common and newly-taught sound and spelling patterns grade level phonics. Examples include, but are not limited to:
- In the Teacher’s Guide, page 65, materials provide a Dictation: Stretch out Your Words practice on spelling words. Students use the corresponding pages in their Learner’s Notebook, page 65. The teacher says the word, and students slow the word down and say the sounds. Students identify the beginning, medial, and ending sounds and write the word in their notebook.
- In the Teacher’s Guide, page 272, the materials present a Quick Switch: Manipulate Your Words practice on spelling words. Students use the corresponding page in their Learner’s Notebook, page 200. The teacher says the word and students slow the word down. The teacher changes one sound within the word. The student says the new word and writes it down.
- In the Teacher’s Guide, page 296, students participate in the quick switch activity using page 229 of their Learner’s Notebook. Students use different sounds to change words: log to frog, frog to dog, dog to dock, and dock to block.
- In the Teacher’s Guide, page 342, students participate in the Dictation Routine on page 250 in their Learner’s Notebook using the words stuff, dunk, and luck. The teacher says the word and then uses it in the sentence. Students write down either the first sound or the first vowel sound they hear.
- In the Teacher’s Guide, page 407, the materials present Dictation: Stretch out Your Words to provide practice saying the sounds in the words and spelling words containing short vowels and the vowel_e pattern with a. Students use the corresponding page in their Learner’s Notebook, page 295.
Lessons provide students with frequent opportunities to build/manipulate/spell and encode words using common and newly-taught sound and spelling patterns grade level phonics. Examples include, but are not limited to:
- In the Teacher’s Guide, pages I-35 through I-55, the materials provide a number of independent activities that give student additional opportunities to build/manipulate and spell or encode words from the day’s lesson.
- In the Teacher’s Guide, page 216, Dictation, Stretch Your Words Out , the materials state: Have students turn to page 163 of the Learner’s Notebook. Follow the Dictation Routine on page I-21 of the Introduction to dictate the following words: 1. cap 2. lag 3. rat.
- In the Teacher’s Guide, page 245, students write the -et and -en spelling patterns in the air with their finger during the Big Reveal.
- In the Teacher’s Guide, page 259, the teacher follows the Quick Switch Routine and dictates the following words rest-best-jest-pest-test. Students record the words in their Learner’s Notebook.
- In the Teacher’s Guide, page 315, the teacher says a word from their word group, and the students write the word.
- In the Learner’s Notebook, page 139, Quick Switch for Weekly Spelling Patterns, Short Vowels, o and i, the teacher dictates the words found on page 178 of the Teacher’s Guide: bid, lid, slid, sod, nod.
Indicator 1j
Materials provide application and encoding of phonics in activities and tasks. (mid K-Grade 2)
The materials reviewed for Kindergarten meet the criteria for materials provide application and encoding of phonics in activities and tasks (mid K-Grade 2).
The materials provide opportunities for students to encode phonetically regular words in context. Students read from the Fluency Notebook daily and practice the weekly sounds. Writing sentences occurs during the Dictation Routine. There are spelling checks that include writing of one sentence incorporated into Day 5 of each week’s lesson. Activities where students generate their own sentences occur at the end of the program.
Materials include explicit, systematic teacher-level instruction of teacher modeling that demonstrates the use of phonics to encode sounds to letters and words in writing tasks. Examples include, but are not limited to:
- In the Teacher’s Guide, pages I-21 through I-24, the materials describe two encoding routines that are practiced throughout the program.
- The Dictation Routine is completed weekly on Days 1 and 3 of Concepts 3-10. Students use their Learner’s Notebook to write sounds, words, and sentences dictated by the teacher.
- The routine on page I-22 prompts the teacher to, “Say the word. Say it in a sentence. Repeat the word. Tell the students to tap out the sounds they hear in the word. Point to the puzzle piece sounds they hear while saying each sound. Tell the students to write the word.”
- The teacher uses this model for the first two words on the list.
- Other words are said aloud to the student and repeated in a sentence. Then, students use the strategy on their own and write the word.
- Sentences are repeated slowly, one word at a time with pauses in between, so students can be “mindful of sight words, focus patterns, and writing conventions introduced so far.”
- The Quick Switch Routine is completed weekly on Days 2 and 4 of Concepts 3-10. Students write a list of related words that are dictated by the teacher.
- The routine specifies that the teacher should model the first change: Say the word. Prompt the students to segment the word. Have students tap out the sounds. Then write the sounds they hear. Record the correct spelling of the first word. Then ask, “How can we change __ to __?” Call on a student to answer, and then state, “To change ____ to ____, we change ___ to ____.” (e.g., To change tag to bag, we change t to b.)
- Students then complete words three through five as the teacher calls out the word.
- In the Teacher’s Guide, page 176, students write three words (e.g., hot, lip, and pig) that are related to the day’s blending practice and then write the sight word you.
- In the Teacher’s Guide, page 385, students write the word den then change it to hen, hen to hill, hill to fill, and fill to fin. The teacher is instructed to, “Help students segment the words and reference puzzle pieces as necessary.”
- The Teacher’s Guide, page I-34, provides a routine for teachers to use during the Spelling Checks section of the lessons. Spelling Checks are completed on Day 5 of each instructional week and are identified as formal assessments for the encoding of words with the week’s focus element. Beginning in Concept 3, Week 1, these Spelling Checks also include writing a sentence which contains words with the focus elements. In some lessons there are differentiated spelling lists for Group 1 and Group 2 (e.g., Concept 3 and during Week 2 of Concepts 4-8).
- In the Teacher’s Guide, page 184, Spelling Check, the teacher provides words for Group 1 (e.g., hid, mob, dig, plot, sip and the sentence “You got the pig!”) and for Group 2 (e.g., slid, crop, dig, loft, slip and the sentence “Get the pig to its pen.”).
- In the Teacher’s Guide, page 423, Spelling Check, the teacher provides words for Group 1 (e.g., hen, here, pet, Pete, eve and the sentence “The men eat.”) and for Group 2 (e.g., west, eve, Steve, tent, Pete and the sentence “I will rest when I am done.”) The focus of the week’s lesson is short e and vowel_e.
- In the Teacher’s Guide, page 433, during the Dictation Routine, students write: “I took a big bite out of the time.” At the end of the routine, the teacher writes the sentence, and students check their work. The teacher reviews the focus pattern, sight words, and conventions for the sentence.
- Several practice activities also provide opportunities for encoding words with the week’s focus elements. The Spell It Out activity found in the Learner’s Notebook provides a picture prompt for a word and students are expected to write the word beside the prompt.
- In the Teacher’s Guide, page 231, students turn to the Learner’s Notebook, page 175, and complete the Spell It Out activity on their own. Teachers are instructed to “coach as needed.”
Lessons provide students with frequent activities and tasks to promote application of phonics as they encode words in sentences, or in phrases, based on common and newly-taught grade-level phonics patterns. Examples include, but are not limited to:
- In the Teacher’s Guide, page 221, students write the sentence “We see a bat” during the spelling check.
- In the Teacher’s Guide, page 383, the teacher dictates the sentence, “The hen can run,” and students write it down.
- There is one sentence included in the daily encoding activities described in the Dictation Routine that appears on Days 1 and 3 of each instruction week.
- In the Teacher’s Guide, page 342, students dictate three spelling words using the focus element, short u, and one sight word.
- In the Teacher’s Guide, page 355, the materials introduce the first sentence in the Dictation Routine. The teacher presents four words with the focus elements, one sight word, and the sentence “The cup is big.”
- In the Teacher’s Guide, page I-53, the Super Sentences routine provides an independent activity in which students use their weekly words in context. Students look at their words for the week and select a word. Students orally construct a sentence that contains the word. Then, students record the sentence on a sheet of paper, and circle the weekly word used.
- The first instance of Super Sentences occurs on Teacher’s Guide, page 360, during the last nine weeks of the school year.
- Super Sentences appear on Day 4 of the remaining eight weeks of the year.
Criterion 1.4: Word Recognition and Word Analysis
Materials and instruction support students in learning and practicing regularly and irregularly spelled high-frequency words.
The instructional materials reviewed for Kindergarten partially meet the criteria for materials include systematic instruction of high-frequency words and opportunities to practice reading of high-frequency words to develop automaticity. Materials meet the criteria for materials provide frequent practice opportunities to read and write high-frequency words in context. Materials partially meet the criteria for materials explicitly teach word analysis strategies based on the requirements of the standards and provide frequent practice opportunities for students to apply word analysis strategies.
Indicator 1k
Materials include systematic instruction of high-frequency words and opportunities to practice reading of high-frequency words to develop automaticity.
The materials reviewed for Kindergarten partially meet the criteria for materials include systematic instruction of high-frequency words and opportunities to practice reading of high-frequency words to develop automaticity.
Students receive systematic instruction on 52 sight words over the course of a year. Routines embedded within the program support students in learning the high-frequency words. The materials do not identify which high-frequency word list was referenced when developing the scope and sequence for the introduction of sight words. While there is some slight variation among the different high-frequency word lists, lists of high-frequency words are fairly consistent in what they identify to be the 300 most common words in the English language. Of the 52 high-frequency words taught in this level of the program, 18 do not appear on any example list of the first 100 high-frequency words in English. As a result, the Teacher’s Guide only provides explicit instruction on approximately 34-40% of the first 100 most commonly used words. Students receive instruction on high-frequency words during two different routines during which students use their sight words.
Materials include some systematic and explicit instruction of sight-based recognition of high-frequency words (e.g., the, of, to, you, she, my, is, are, do, does). Examples include, but are not limited to:
- In the Teacher’s Guide, pages I-19 and I-20, there is a Sight Words Routine that is mapped out for the teacher. The Sight Words Routine occurs during the Blending routine.
1. The teacher places his or her hand below the word.
2. The teacher says the word.
3. The students repeat the word.
4. The students orally spell the word.
- In the Teacher’s Guide, page I-22, the Dictation Routine is explained. During the routine, the teacher says the sight word and then uses the sight word in a sentence. The teacher then says, “Write.” The students write the word, referencing the word wall as needed.
- In the Teacher’s Guide, pages I-63 and I-64, a scope and sequence chart is provided for the introduction of sight words. The scope and sequence is organized under the concepts introduced and weeks of instruction throughout the year. This sequence indicates a total of 52 words that are taught over the 36 weeks of instruction.
- In the Teacher’s Guide, page 50, the sight word be is practiced during the supported Blending Routine.
- In the Teacher’s Guide, page 182, students complete the Sight Words Routine with the sight words to and you.
- In the Teacher’s Guide, page 242, students participate in the Dictation Routine with the sight word red.
Materials include a limited quantity of grade-appropriate high-frequency words for students to make reading progress. No rationale is provided for the sequence of word introduction. Examples include, but are not limited to:
- In the Teacher’s Guide, page I-63, the materials identify the sight words for Kindergarten. There are 52 sight words that students learn over the course of the reading material. During Concept 2, students learn one sight word. During Concepts 3 - 9 and most of Concept 10, students learn two sight words. In Weeks 3, 4, and 5 during Concept 10, students review the sight words that they have learned.
- Of the 52 high-frequency words introduced throughout the Teacher Guide for the 36 weeks of instruction, 34 of the 52 (65%) words appear on the list of the first 100 high-frequency words in English. Thirty-five percent (18) of the words taught as high-frequency words do not appear within the first 100 on that list.
Indicator 1l
Materials provide frequent practice opportunities to read and write high-frequency words in context (sentences).
The materials reviewed for Kindergarten partially meet the criteria for materials provide frequent practice opportunities to read and write high-frequency words in context (sentences).
Materials provide some opportunities during the Blending Routines for students to read high-frequency words in sentences and in some of the fluency stories. However, this practice is not consistent because not every fluency passage contains the weekly high-frequency words. There are limited practice opportunities for students to write high frequency words. Opportunities for writing high-frequency words take place in the Dictation Routine and the Spelling Check. The Teacher’s Guide provides limited practice opportunities for students to read and write high-frequency words during the daily lessons and provides little to no cumulative or distributed practice over subsequent lessons. Routines are included in the Teacher Guide that provide multimodal practice for sight words. Practice opportunities include: Spelling Checks, Read and Trade, Super Sentences, Rainbow Write, and Partner Spell. Only sight words included on the scope and sequence are introduced and practiced in the Blending Routine or incorporated into the spelling activities. However, students are expected to read many other words and letter/sound patterns by sight that have not been formally introduced or practiced prior to reading them in their Fluency Notebook.
Lessons provide students with limited opportunities to read grade level high-frequency words in a sentence. Examples include:
- In the Fluency Notebook, page 23, students practice the sight word is in the story: “That is a mat. That is a cat. The cat is on the mat. The mat is on the cat.”
- In the Teacher’s Guide, page 107, students read fluency pages. The word no, which is a sight word for the week, is included in the Oo fluency passage.
- In the Teacher’s Guide, page 149, students are referred to page 23 in the Fluency Notebook. Students read passages that have a ‘short a’ focus.
- The week’s sight word is appears five times in four short passages.
- The week’s sight word can does not appear in any of the sentences.
- Of the 10 previously taught sight words, up, on, and a are each repeated four to five times.
- Many other words that are used in the passages contain letter-sound patterns that the students have not been taught. Students would not have the skills to decode the letter-sound patterns, but they are not introduced as sight words before practicing them in context. Untaught words in the passages include that, the, snack, wakes, happy, back, take, out, then, path they, down, friends. The letter-sound patterns are not systematically reviewed in later lessons.
- In the Teacher’s Guide, page 213, students read fluency pages. The word and, which is a sight word for the week, is included in the “What is That Tap?” passage.
- In the Learner’s Notebook, page 234, the sight words for the week include got and hot. Students read three sentences and circle the sentence that matches the picture (e.g. The frog got a lily pad. The frog got a rock. The frog got a bug.)
- In the Teacher’s Guide, page 272, students complete the Blending Routine. The teacher writes a sentence on the board with the high frequency word very. Students read the sentence chorally.
- In the Teacher’s Guide, page 340, students complete the Read and Trade activity, during which they take their words out and read one, a partner reads one of their words. Students trade the words until they are done or the teacher says to stop. The high-frequency words, its and ask, are included in the the activity.
Lessons provide students with limited opportunities to write grade level high-frequency words in tasks (such as sentences) in order to promote automaticity in writing grade appropriate high-frequency words. Examples include:
- In the Teacher’s Guide, page 148, the sight words can and is are introduced. The word is is utilized in the Dictation section after it has been introduced. In the Dictation activity, the teacher says the word and then says the word in a sentence. Students write the word.
- In the Teacher’s Guide, page 155, the word is appears once in the Spelling Check for Group 1 when they write a sentence. The word is appears again in the Comprehension Check on page 124 of the Learner’s Notebook. The word can, the other high frequency word for the week, does not appear in either activity.
- In the Teacher’s Guide, page 161, students complete the Dictation Routine, in which the teacher dictates words, and students write them. During this Dictation Routine the words practiced include: is, in.
- In the Learner’s Notebook, page 233, Spelling Check, sight words for the week include: got, hot. The teacher dictates the following sentence for the students to record in the Learner’s Notebook: “I got the mop.”
- In the Teacher’s Guide, page 346, Spelling Check, the teacher dictates a sentence for students to record in the Learner’s Notebook, page 253. The sentences include: Group 1: “The duck got its grub.” Group 2 : "The bus got its back end stuck in the mud." The sight words for the week are: its, ask.
Indicator 1m
Materials explicitly teach word analysis strategies (e.g., phoneme/grapheme recognition, syllabication, morpheme analysis) based on the requirements of the standards and provide students with frequent practice opportunities to apply word analysis strategies.
The materials reviewed for Kindergarten partially meet the criteria for materials explicitly teach word analysis strategies (e.g., phoneme/grapheme recognition, syllabication, morpheme analysis) based on the requirements of the standards and provide frequent practice opportunities for students to apply word analysis strategies.
The Teacher’s Guide teaches all the phoneme-grapheme relationships for individual letters and short vowels. Materials provide a Blending Routine to teach students how to break the word down into its individual sounds, put the sounds back together, and then read the word. Word families are taught so that students learn to “chunk” larger pieces of the word in order to read more fluently. At the end of the program materials introduce the concept of the vowels saying their names instead of a short sound, and instruction is included on long and short vowel sounds when spelled with the ‘vowel_final e’ pattern. There are opportunities for the teacher to model explicit instruction on word analysis strategies. However, explicit word analysis instruction does not occur frequently, and opportunities for explicit instruction concerning word solving strategies to decode unfamiliar words ist evident. Students learn to tap out sounds during the Blending Routine, but there is no guidance for teachers about how to assess whether words are familiar/unfamiliar or how to teach students to analyze and decode unfamiliar words. Lessons typically only present words with that week’s focal element and; therefore, provide limited review opportunities. The word sort activities provide students with multiple opportunities to learn, practice, and apply word analysis strategies. Students also apply word analysis strategies in the Fluency Notebook.
Materials contain limited explicit instruction of word analysis strategies (e.g. phoneme/grapheme recognition, syllabication, morpheme analysis). Examples include, but are not limited to:
- In the Teacher’s Guide, page I-21 , Dictation Routine, the teacher says a word, such as tiger and says the word in a sentence. Then, the teacher cues students to tell her the first vowel sound you hear. Students isolate the first vowel and give the sound. Students complete this activity regularly throughout the program for kindergarten.
- In the Teacher’s Guide, page 192, students complete the Quick Switch activity with the words, bug, bud, mud, mid, and lid. The teacher says the first word. The teacher then prompts students to segment the word. Students tap out the sounds they hear. Then, students write down the sounds they hear in the word.
- In the Teacher’s Guide, page 208, Puzzle Piece Review provides prompts for the teacher: 1. Say, “When I point to the piece, you tell me its name “ (sun, hat). 2. Say, “When I point to the piece, you tell me its sound” (/s/, /h/). 3. Say, “When I point to the piece, you tell me its spelling” (s, u). 4. Say, “Write the spellings in the air with your finger” (students form the letters s and u).
- In the Teacher’s Guide, page 323, the Supported Blending segment prompts the teacher to “Display the following words on the board one line at a time. Facilitate a discussion about the blending line focus after each line (line 1: tub, sub, cub: Discuss -ub word family line 2: bun, fun, sun: Discuss -un word family line 3. cut, nut, but: Discuss -ut word family)”.
- In the Teacher’s Guide, Concept 10 is devoted to teaching the five long vowel sounds that use the ‘vowel_e’ spelling pattern (silent ‘e’ rule)
- In the Teacher’s Guide, page 406, materials begin teaching the discrimination between ‘short a’ and ‘long a’ using the spelling pattern ’a_e’ continuing through Day 5, page 411.
- In the Teacher’s Guide, page 417, materials begin teaching the discrimination between ‘short e’ and ‘long e’ using the spelling pattern ’e_e’ continuing through Day 5, page 423.
- In the Teacher’s Guide, page 430, materials begin teaching the discrimination between ‘short i’ and ‘long i’ using the spelling pattern ’i_e’ continuing through Day 5, page 435.
- In the Teacher’s Guide, page 441, materials begin teaching the discrimination between ‘short o’ and ‘long o’ using the spelling pattern ’o_e’ continuing through Day 5, page 448.
- In the Teacher’s Guide, page 454, materials begin teaching the discrimination between ‘short u’ and ‘long u’ using the spelling pattern ’_e’ continuing through Day 5, page 461.
Materials contain limited explicit instruction of word solving strategies (graphophonic and syntactic) to decode unfamiliar words. Examples include:
- In the Teacher’s Guide, page 148, the Blending Routine portion of the lesson uses the following examples to teach students to distinguish between similarly spelled words and to blend the sounds together to form a word: (1) hat, mat, sat, (2) bed, red, Ted (3) bag, beg, peg. This routine is repeated often throughout the program.
- In the Learner’s Notebook, page 161: Weekly Sort -at, -ap, -ag, students read and sort words from word families into groups (cat, cap, tag, mat, rap, sag, bat, sap, lag, rat, tap, rag, sat, lap, wag, pat, nap, nag).
- In the Teacher’s Guide, page 232, the teacher uses the Quick Switch Routine to review the -an family, changing: ran↠man↠fan↠can↠scan. This routine is repeated often throughout the program.
Opportunities are provided over the course of the year for students to learn, practice, and apply word analysis strategies. Examples include, but are not limited to:
- In the Learner’s Notebook, page 179, Weekly Sort: Word families -et -ed -en, students apply word analysis strategies to sort words into word families -et, -ed, -en (jet, bed, Ben, wet, led, hen, set, fed, men, pet, Ted, zen, get, wed, ten, bet, med, den).
- In the Teacher’s Guide, page 272, students complete the Sorting with Words Routine. They take a word out of their bag, tap out the sounds of the word, read the word, say the sound-spelling pattern, and then put the word under the correct heading.
- In the Teacher’s Guide, page 395, students complete the Color-Code Writing Routine. They write the words in pencil. Then they go over the spelling pattern with marker, colored pencil, or crayon.
- The Blending Routine and the various sorting routines appear daily in the lessons to provide practice reading words and sentences containing the week’s focal element. Cumulative review and distributed practice of previously introduced words is limited. Lessons review and practice elements that are introduced during that week of instruction but do not necessarily review previous spelling patterns learned.
- The Teacher’s Guide provides systematic and repeated opportunities for students to apply the blending strategy to read newly introduced words with a focus pattern. Throughout the course of the year, the students blend words containing each of the consonants, short vowels and long vowel_final e patterns. For example, on page 410, the Blending Routine provides practice on the focus element (short vowels and vowel_e words containing "a” by reading a list of words and a sentence).
Limited opportunities are provided over the course of the year for students to learn, practice, and apply word analysis strategies. Examples include:
- The Fluency Notebook, page 42, is used for contextual practice for students to apply word analysis skills.
- In the Learner’s Notebook, page 296 is used for a dictation activity entitled Quick Switch during which students apply word analysis skills to change a word into another minimally different word. Quick Switch is followed by a word sort activity using the word cards with the focus element and analyzing how to sort the words according to patterns.
- In the Teacher’s Guide, page 407, students read the “Magic E” and “Poof” fluency passages which have long vowel e words in it.
- Other activities for applying word analysis skills that are interspersed throughout the lessons include Word Hunt, Sort Your Own Way, and Highlighter Hunt.
- The same activities are used repeatedly over the course of the year for students to practice word analysis skills. There are many word sort activities, but the other word analysis strategies are not varied.
Criterion 1.5: Decoding Accuracy, Decoding Automaticity and Fluency
This criterion is non-negotiable. Materials must achieve a specified minimum score in this criterion to advance to the next gateway.
Materials provide systematic and explicit instruction and practice in fluency by focusing on accuracy and automaticity in decoding in K and 1, and rate, expression, and accuracy in mid-to-late 1st and 2nd grade. Materials for 2nd grade fluency practice should vary (decodables and grade-level texts).
The instructional materials reviewed for Kindergarten partially meet the criteria for materials provide opportunities for students to engage in decoding practice focused on accuracy and automaticity. Materials partially meet the criteria for materials provide teacher guidance to support students as they confirm or self-correct errors and emphasize reading for purpose and understanding.
Indicator 1n
Materials provide opportunities for students to engage in decoding practice focused on accuracy and automaticity in K and Grade 1.
The materials reviewed for Kindergarten partially meet the criteria for materials provide opportunities for students to engage in decoding practice focused on accuracy and automaticity in K and Grade 1.
The materials provide poem, alliteration, and chant fluency routines that help students build automaticity. There is also a choral reading fluency routine and a passage routine; however, the materials include limited systematic and explicit instruction with these routines to help build fluency. The Teacher’s Guide provides several routines to teach students how to accurately read words; however, these routines are not integrated into reading in context, and teachers are not provided explicit instructions for their use in sentence reading. There are no specific correction procedures recommended for use when students do not read accurately in context. Fluency selections are reread throughout the week to build automaticity, but daily rereading of the passages is not incorporated into the lessons. There is a limited amount of teacher modeling of fluent reading.
Materials provide limited systematic and explicit instruction and practice in fluency by focusing on accuracy and automaticity in decoding. Examples include:
- In the Teacher’s Guide, pg. I-31, there is information on the fluency chants and alliteration couplets routines. The teacher should select the chant or couplet to read for the day. The teacher either has the students open their fluency notebook or the teacher displays the enlarged version in front of the class. The teacher tells students the focus pattern or the title of the pattern and then reads it all the way through. Then the teacher invites the students to read the chant or couplet. The teacher reviews the hand signals for my turn, your turn.
- In the Teacher’s Guide, pg. I-32, during the Fluency Passage Routine, there is a 15 minute activity completed on Days 1-4. In Concept 3, students repeatedly read one of two weekly passages. The teacher encourages the students to read the passage out loud with a partner at least three times to build fluency.
- In the Teacher’s Guide, pages I-16 through I-20, three instructional routines designed assist students with building accuracy in word reading by modeling blending and sight word reading are provided.
- The Supported Blending and Blending Routines provide explicit routines for the teacher to assist students in accurately decoding words.
- These routines are incorporated into each day’s lesson, beginning first with Supported Blending in which students produce some of the sounds within a word and the teacher supplies the rest. Then, students blend the sounds together to read the word. This routine appears in Concept 2 on Days 1-4.
- In the Teacher’s Guide, page 26, students identify the “initial sound of d. The teacher says the remainder of the word, and students blend or say the whole word (i.e., dig→student identifies d→ teacher says ig→student says dig).
- In the Teacher’s Guide, page 96, the teacher uses the Supported Blending Routine to teach the sound of x in both the final and initial sound positions.
- The Blending Routine begins in Concept 3 and continues throughout the remainder of the program. Here students identify all of the sounds/spelling patterns within the word and then put them together to read the entire word.
- In the Teacher’s Guide, pages I-19 and I-20, The Sight Word Routine provides explicit instruction for sight words that are introduced during each day’s lesson in order to build fluency with reading words. The first 12 weeks' lessons introduce one sight word per lesson. After the first 12 weeks of instruction, lessons introduce two sight words for the remainder of the year. Beginning with Concept 3, students are also introduced to reading a sentence at the end of the blending and sight word instruction.
- In the Teacher’s Guide, page 148, materials introduce short a and short e vowels. Students blend three letter CVC words applying their knowledge of sounds to decode and blend the words.
- In the Teacher’s Guide, page 192, materials introduce two sight words (i.e., for, go) and one sentence (The gift is for Bill.).
- In the Teacher’s Guide, page 443, students practice the Blending Routine while discriminating between short o and o_e vowel sounds.
- In the Teacher’s Guide, page 443, the teacher introduces ask and its as sight words and the sentence, “‘It’s a globe,’ said Mom.”
Materials provide limited opportunities for students in Kindergarten to engage in decoding practice focused on accuracy and automaticity. Examples include:
- The Teacher’s Guide has selected poems and chants, etc. contained in the Fluency Notebook that are correlated with the instructional lessons and practiced daily each week. However, there are no explicit instructions as to how to use the Blending Routine within the context of reading these selections or what to do if students can’t read them.
- In the Teacher’s Guide, page 11, materials reference the Fluency Notebook, Concept 1, page 1, students read one or more of the poems. However, students have not yet received instruction on the letter-sound patterns of the alphabet or on any sight words. No instructions are provided to the teacher as to how the students should be led through these poems or taught sight words prior to trying to read them in context.
- In the Teacher’s Guide, page 179, materials reference the Fluency Notebook, Concept 3, page 25 and instruct the teacher to “...have the students read one or more of the passages. Circulate and listen to students read or gather a small group of students who need additional support.”
- In the Teacher’s Guide, page 455, students turn to the Fluency Notebook, page 46, and read one or more of the poems. The teacher is instructed to circulate and listen to students read.
- In the Teacher’s Guide, page 81, students read fluency pages “Quiet,” “Fan,” “Run,” and “Zip” in the fluency segment of the lesson. During the fluency reading, there are chants that are described to be interactive and have a space where students can illustrate part of the chants. Students can read the chants with a partner, or they can use words from their sort bags to fill in the blank during the chants. Students may read the chants independently or with a partner.
- In the Teacher’s Guide, page 225, students read short vowel poems. The materials state that this helps students continue to practice the three components of fluency. Students turn to the page in their fluency notebook, they read the poem out loud three times, and they continue to practice until they have achieved fluency.
Indicator 1q
Materials provide teacher guidance to support students as they confirm or self-correct errors (Grades 1-2) and emphasize reading for purpose and understanding.
The materials reviewed for Kindergarten partially meet the criteria for materials provide teacher guidance to support students as they confirm or self-correct errors and emphasize reading for purpose and understanding.
Materials include limited lessons for students to learn to confirm and self-correct errors and emphasize reading for purpose and understanding during Fluency Routines and Comprehension Checks.
Limited opportunities are provided over the course of the year for students to read emergent-reader texts (K) for purpose and understanding.
- Teacher's Guide, page I-30, the purpose for the Fluency: Chants and Alliteration Couplet Routine states: The chants and alliteration couplets help students continue growing their confidence as readers. They are simple, allowing students to memorize them throughout the week. Students can then independently read the chants and couplets, matching spoken words to print and identifying the focus patterns within words. The Basic Routine for the Fluency: Chants and Alliteration Couplet Routine includes directions for the teacher to state, "Tell students the title or the focus pattern and read the chant or couplet all the way through."
- Teacher's Guide, page I-31, the purpose for the Fluency: Passage Routine states: Fluency passages are short, highly decodable texts that allow students to take on more responsibility for independently reading. As students master the passage throughout the week, they will be practicing the three major components of reading fluency: reading the words accurately, reading at a natural pace, reading with expression. Students will also build confidence in themselves as readers and see that they can read on their own.
- Teacher's Guide, page I-32, the purpose for the Fluency: Short Vowel Poems Routine states: The short vowel poems will help students continue to practice the three components of reading fluency. As they repeatedly read the poems throughout the week, students become more familiar with each one. They add expression and personalize how they read the poems. Students begin to see themselves as readers, and reading as enjoyable.
Materials contain explicit directions and/or think-alouds for the teacher to model how to engage with a text to emphasize reading for purpose and understanding.
- No evidence found.