The materials include explicit instruction and teacher modeling for forming all 26 uppercase and lowercase letters. Language is consistent throughout the letter formation descriptions. A defined scope and sequence includes all 26 letters clearly outlined in the teacher materials. However, the materials do not provide clear guidance for corrective feedback other than providing correct answers printed in blue in the Teacher Manual.

There is a defined sequence for letter formation, aligned to the scope and sequence of letter recognition, to be completed in a reasonable time frame over the school year. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:

• In the Scope and Sequence, the 26 letters are taught in lessons 1 through 16 out of 25 lessons. The materials introduce the formation of letters in the following order: 

  • Lessons 1-3 (3 Weeks): t, p, n, a

  • Lesson 4 (1 Week): T, P, N, A

  • Lessons 5-7 (3 Weeks): m, g, d, i, s, h, b

  • Lesson 8 (1 Week): M, G, D, I, S, H, B

  • Lessons 9-11 (3 Weeks): o, l, r, c, f, j, w

  • Lesson 12 (1 Week): O, L, R, C, F, J, W

  • Lessons 13-15 (3 Weeks): e, z, k, y, v, u, q, x

  • Lesson 16 (1 Week): E, Z, K, Y, V, U, Q, X

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, the following:

• In Digital Teacher’s Materials, Teacher Information, the materials include a K-1 PCP Stroke Talk for Letter Formation document with a verbal description to guide letter formation for all uppercase and lowercase letters. The lesson text includes the verbal pathways as the teacher introduces each letter. 

• In Lesson 1, Day 2, the teacher reviews the two practice strokes from Lesson 1, Day 1, stating the stroke’s name as pull straight down. The teacher models the stroke and then asks students to use their Student Workbook to trace with their finger and then their pencil before writing the stroke on the remaining lines. The teacher then models the push-up stroke in the same manner.

• In Lesson 2, Day 1, the materials include explicit instruction for letter formation t. The teacher models how to start at the top line, pull down straight, go back to the midpoint, and slide right while forming the letter t. 

• In Lesson 16, Day 3, the materials include explicit instruction for letter formation E and Z. The teacher models how to form the letter E: “Start at the top line, pull down straight, and lift. Back to the top line, slide to the right, and lift. Slide along the midline, and lift. Slide along the bottom line.” The teacher then models how to form the letter Z: “start at the top line, slide right, slant left, and slide right.”

Materials include limited teacher guidance for corrective feedback when needed for students. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:

• In Implementation Guidance, page 28, the materials state, “Monitor the strokes students use as they practice the formation. Practicing correct letter formation reinforces the students’ knowledge of the letter shape and contributes to improvements in handwriting fluency.”

The materials include assessment opportunities for letter recognition and formation. The materials include six unit assessments. The first four assessments include letter formation assessment items but do not assess all 26 uppercase and lowercase letters. Letter recognition is not specifically assessed in the unit assessments. The materials also include access to the Phonics Screener for Intervention (PSI), though this assessment is optional for students with decoding or accuracy needs. The materials only include general information about when reteaching or further assessment is necessary based on assessment data and do not provide guidance or resources for instructional next steps. 

Materials regularly and systematically provide a variety of assessment opportunities over the course of the year to demonstrate students’ progress toward mastery and independence of letter recognition and letter formation. Examples include, but are not limited to the following: 

• In the Unit 1 Assessment, the letters N, a, P, t are given. Students write the corresponding uppercase or lowercase letters n, A, p, and T. Correct responses include formations “that resemble the correct letter,” and points are not deducted for reversals. The student assessment page provides handwriting lines to support letter formation. 

• In the Unit 2 Assessment, the Letter Formation section assesses students’ ability to form the following letters:  d, a (short a sound), h, m, n, i (short i sound). Students write the letters as either upper or lowercase in the corresponding order: d, A, h, m, I. Correct responses include formations “that resemble the correct letter,” and points are not deducted for reversals. The student assessment page provides handwriting lines to support letter formation.

• In the Unit 4 Assessment, the Initial Sound section assesses students’ ability to identify the letter that makes the beginning sound in the words zipper, edge, volcano, yawn, and up. The assessment includes an image for each word, and the teacher says the word aloud. Students write lowercase letters in handwriting lines to support letter formation. Correct responses include formations “that resemble the correct letter,” and points are not deducted for reversals.

• In the Phonics Screener for Intervention (PSI), the materials include a letter name and letter sound assessment in which students identify the name and sound of all 26 lowercase letters. It is important to note that the materials indicate that while the letter name and letter sound portions of the assessment may be used with kindergarten students, the assessment is “designed to identify the decoding needs of students who have poor reading accuracy” and that “administration of the PSI is not necessary for students who read accurately and fluently on grade-appropriate oral reading passages.” 

Assessment materials provide teachers and students with limited information concerning students’ current skills/level of understanding of letter recognition and letter formation. Examples include, but are not limited to the following: 

• In the Kindergarten Assessment Overview, the materials state, “If a student misses more than 1 response in a section, check the student’s understanding of the skill with additional items similar to those in the assessment. Students who do not have full understanding of the skill(s) may require additional practice opportunities, re-teaching or additional time to master the skill(s).” Guidance is not specific to letter recognition and/or letter formation. 

Materials support teachers with general instructional suggestions for assessment-based steps to help students to progress toward mastery in letter recognition and letter formation. Examples include, but are not limited to the following: 

• In the Kindergarten Assessment Overview, the materials provide the following guidance for each section of the assessment: “If less than 80% are responding correctly, additional teaching of the specific skill is recommended during Tier 1 core instruction either as a whole group or in a differentiated small group.” Guidance is not specific to letter recognition and/or letter formation. 

• In the Phonics Screener for Intervention, User’s Guide, the materials indicate that teachers should identify which letter names and sounds a student could not identify easily and then provide explicit instruction for each area of concern.

The materials contain a clear, evidence-based explanation for the expected sequence for teaching phonemic awareness skills. The Scope and Sequence provides an outline for phonological awareness skill development; however, about half the year is spent on phonological sensitivity before students get daily practice in phonemic awareness. Phonological awareness warm-ups are included in lessons but do not correspond to the phonics topic. There are phonemic awareness activities integrated with the introduction of new graphemes, though this is not done daily. 

Materials contain a clear, evidence-based explanation for the expected sequence for teaching phonemic awareness skills. Examples include, but are not limited to the following: 

• In the Introduction, the materials state that the program is research-based using studies by the National Reading Panel report and David Kilpatrick’s 2015 book, Essentials of Assessing, Preventing, and Overcoming Reading Difficulties.

• In Introduction, Phonological Awareness, the materials acknowledge the importance of phonological awareness skills in learning to read, which is why they include a two-minute warm-up in all Kindergarten through grade 3 materials as well as a two-minute wrap-up in Kindergarten. The materials state that as lessons progress, the concepts also progress towards advanced phonemic awareness tasks such as adding, deleting, and substituting initial and final phonemes in late Kindergarten. However, the materials do not include a clear, evidence-based explanation for the sequence.

Materials have a cohesive sequence of phonemic awareness instruction based on the expected hierarchy to build toward students’ immediate application of the skills. Examples include, but are not limited to the following: 

• In Introduction, Scope and Sequence, the materials include a scope and sequence that outlines the following progression in phonological awareness instruction:

  • Lessons 1-4: Blending, segmenting, adding, deleting, and substituting syllables in compound words 

  • Lessons 5-8: Blending, segmenting, identifying number of syllables in non-compound words

  • Lessons 9-12: Blending, segmenting, comparing rimes, and substituting onset in onset-rime 

  • Lessons 13-16: Isolating and identifying initial and final phonemes 

  • Lessons 17-19: Blending, segmenting, and isolating 2-3 phonemes in a word 

  • Lessons 20-25: Segmenting, adding initial and final phonemes, deleting initial and final phonemes, substituting initial phoneme in words containing four phonemes 

Materials attend to developing phonemic awareness skills and avoid spending excess time on phonological sensitivity tasks. Examples include, but are not limited to the following: 

• In Scope and Sequence, the materials indicate that the Phonological Awareness Warm-Ups and Wrap-Ups in Lessons 1-12 (12 weeks) focus on phonological sensitivity tasks, including blending and segmenting compound words, counting syllables, and blending, segmenting, and substituting onset-rime. Lessons 13-25 (13 weeks) focus on phonemic awareness skills, including isolating and identifying phonemes and blending, segmenting, and substituting phonemes. 

Materials contain a phonemic awareness sequence of instruction and practice that is somewhat aligned to the phonics scope and sequence. Examples include, but are not limited to the following: 

• Each lesson starts with a Phonological or Phonemic Awareness Warm-Up that lasts two minutes. The skills and words used during this warm-up do not specifically align with the phonics scope and sequence. However, in some lessons when a new phoneme is introduced and the corresponding grapheme, there is a phonemic awareness activity for students to practice isolating the sound. For example:

  • In Lesson 5, Day 3, the teacher introduces the /d/ sound using the Sound-Spelling Card. The teacher and students repeat the letter name, keyword dog, and letter sound. The teacher says the words deck, dig, pig, check, dog, log, zip, and dip, and students provide a modeled nonverbal response to indicate whether the word contains the /d/ sound. 

  • In Lesson 11, Day 1, the teacher introduces the /j/ sound using the Sound-Spelling Card. The teacher and students repeat the letter name, keyword jet, and letter sound. The teacher says the words jack, jog, back, log, jam, lamb, put, and jet, and students provide a modeled nonverbal response to indicate whether the word contains the /j/ sound. 

  • In Lesson 24, Day 3, the teacher introduces the long sound /ū/ using the Sound-Spelling Card. The teacher and students repeat the letter name, keyword unicorn, and letter sound. The teacher says the words cute, rule, nut, use, pug, duck, tune, and dug, and students provide a modeled nonverbal response to indicate whether the word contains the /ū/ sound.

The materials include systematic and explicit instruction in phonemic awareness with repeated teacher modeling. Materials provide the teacher with instruction in sounds, including isolating and manipulating sounds. However, the materials do not provide clear guidance for corrective feedback for phonemic awareness. 

Materials provide the teacher with systematic, explicit instruction in sounds (phonemes). Examples include, but are not limited to the following: 

• RF.K.2d Isolate and pronounce the initial, medial vowel, and final sounds (phonemes) in three-phoneme (consonant-vowel-consonant, or CVC) words

  • In Lesson 13, Day 1, the teacher tells students that they will use the concepts of beginning, middle, and end to talk about where they hear different sounds within words. The teacher says the word mash and models finger-stretching the sounds, then says, “The first sound is /m/; this is the beginning sound. The next sound is /ă/; this is the middle sound. The last sound is /sh/; this is the end sound.”

  • In Lesson 16, Day 1, the teacher explains that they will practice saying the first sound in words and has the students watch and listen. The teacher says man and then says the first sound is /m/. The teacher says the word see and then says the first sound is /s/.

  • In Lesson 22, Day 1, the teacher introduces the short o sound. After introducing it, the teacher says several words, and students show a thumbs up if the word has a /ŏ/ and a thumbs down if they do not hear it. All of the vowels are in the medial position. 

• Blend and segment words with two and three phonemes. 

  • In Lesson 5, Day 1, the teacher models blending sounds. The teacher explains the use of colored chips to model blending, indicating that blue chips represent consonant sounds and red chips represent short vowel sounds. The teacher uses the digital presentation slide to model using chips to blend the sounds /m/, /a/, /n/ into man. The materials provide a detailed teacher script to model and verbalize the steps of blending sounds. The teacher repeats with the words am and an. 

  • In Lesson 17, Day 1, the teacher models blending two-phoneme words. The teacher says the sounds /m/ /ā/ and says, “Next, I blend the sounds to say a word. May.” The teacher guides students to practice blending the words bye and me. 

  • In Lesson 18, Day 1, the teacher models segmenting two-phoneme words. The teacher says the word at and models finger-stretching the sounds in the words, holding up a finger for each sound /ă/ /t/. The teacher guides students to practice segmenting the words it and up. 

• RF.K.2e Add or substitute individual sounds (phonemes) in simple, one-syllable words to make new words.

  • In Lesson 21, Day 1, the teacher tells students they will practice adding a sound to the beginning of a word to make a new word. The teacher models saying the word in, then adding /p/ to the beginning of the word. The teacher says each sound /p/ /ĭ/ /n/, then says the new word pin. 

  • In Lesson 22, Day 1, the teacher explains that they will practice adding a sound to the end of the word to make a new word. The teacher models while the students watch and listen. The teacher says the word ant and then explains she will add /t/ to the end of the word and get the word ant. 

  • In Lesson 25, Day 1, the teacher explains that they will practice changing the beginning sound in a word to make a new word. The teacher models while the students watch and listen. The teacher says the word cat and then explains that if she changes the /k/ to /b/, the new word is bat.

Materials provide the teacher with examples for instruction in sounds (phonemes). Examples include, but are not limited to the following: 

• In Lesson 16, Day 2, the materials provide the teacher with the words she and no to guide students to isolate initial sounds chorally. The materials include the following examples for the teacher to guide student practice of identifying the initial sound: road, fake, map, wait, yum, buzz, may, pin, knees, tan, pop, hedge, sock, dig, itch, and pie. 

• In Lesson 24, Day 1, the teacher models phoneme deletion by saying inch, then taking away or deleting /ch/ from the end of the word and saying the new word is in. The teacher guides students to repeat the process with cart/car and neat/knee.  

Materials include teacher guidance for corrective feedback when needed for students. Examples include, but are not limited to the following: 

• No evidence found

The materials include limited assessment opportunities in the area of phonemic awareness. The materials include six Unit Assessments. Unit Assessments 1-3 include phonological sensitivity items, including blending and counting syllables and blending onset and rime, but do not assess phonemic awareness. Unit Assessments 4-6 include phonemic awareness assessment items, limited to identifying initial phonemes and segmenting words. The materials include general information about when reteaching or further assessment is necessary based on assessment data but do not provide guidance or resources for instructional next steps. 

Materials somewhat regularly and systematically provide a variety of assessment opportunities over the course of the year to demonstrate students’ progress toward mastery and independence in phonemic awareness. Examples include, but are not limited to the following: 

• In Unit 4, Unit Assessment, the assessment includes a phonological awareness component in which students indicate whether two spoken words have the same initial sound. Word pairs include mat/mask, race/pack, wet/win, dad/dime, light/game. 

• In Unit 5, Unit Assessment, the assessment includes a phonological awareness component in which students indicate how many sounds are in the spoken words tub, box, key, and nest by circling the matching set of boxes with counters. 

Assessment materials provide teachers and students with general information concerning students’ current skills/level of understanding of phonemic awareness. Examples include, but are not limited to the following: 

• In the Kindergarten Assessment Overview, the materials indicate that if a student misses more than one response in a section, the teacher should “check the student’s understanding of the skill with additional items that are similar to those in the assessment. Students who do not have full understanding of the skill(s) may require additional practice opportunities, re-teaching, or additional time to master the skill(s).” 

Materials do not support teachers with instructional suggestions for assessment-based steps to help students to progress toward mastery in phonemic awareness. Examples include, but are not limited to the following: 

• In the Kindergarten Assessment Overview, the materials provide the following general guidance for each section of the assessment: “Students who do not have full understanding of the skill(s) may require additional practice opportunities, re-teaching or additional time to master the skill(s).”

The materials contain instructions for systematic and explicit teacher modeling of newly-taught phonics concepts. Lessons include blending and segmenting practice utilizing consistent routines. However, minimal evidence was found for distinguishing between similarly spelled words by identifying sounds of the letters that differ. The dictation portion of lessons includes the newly taught phonics concepts and previously taught concepts. Materials include teacher guidance for corrective feedback when needed for students.

Materials contain explicit instructions for systematic and repeated teacher modeling of newly-taught phonics patterns. Examples include, but are not limited to the following: 

• RF.K.3a Demonstrate basic knowledge of one-to-one letter-sound correspondences by producing the primary sound or many of the most frequent sounds for each consonant. Examples include but are not limited to:

  • In Lesson 3, Day 2, the teacher introduces the letter-sound correspondence for n. The teacher displays the Sound-Spelling Card and follows a gradual release model of stating the letter name, keyword, and sound. The teacher prompts the students to find letter n on their letter-sound strip and trace the letter while saying aloud the letter name, keyword, and sound until the teacher says stop. 

  • In Lesson 14, Day 3, the teacher introduces the letter-sound correspondence for v. The teacher displays the Sound-Spelling Card van. The teacher tells students to look at the picture of the keyword van. The teacher tells students that the first sound in van is /v/ and that the letter v spells the /v/ sound. The teacher says the letter name, keyword, and letter sound.  

• RF.K.3b Associate the long and short sounds with the common spellings (graphemes) for the five major vowels.

  • In Lesson 9, Day 1, the teacher introduces the letter o and the sound it spells. The teacher holds up the sound-letter card and explains that the letter is o and it has a job to make the /ŏ/ sound. The teacher models with her mouth how to form the sound /ŏ/ while explaining that her mouth is wide open and her chin drops. The teacher then places her hand on her throat while making the /ŏ/ sound and explains that the sound is a voiced sound that continues. The teacher tells the student to listen and watch while holding the Sound-Spelling Card. Students listen and watch the teacher explain that the letter name is o, the keyword is octopus, and the sound is /ŏ/.

  • In Lesson 22, Day 1, the teacher introduces the long o sound /ō/. The teacher displays the Keyword Card ocean and says the letter name, the keyword, and the letter sound. The teacher guides students to repeat the letter name, keyword, and sound five times. Then the teacher guides students to read the sentence Please get me a cone. Before reading, the teacher displays the word cone and reminds students that cone is a word with the /ō/ sound spelled with a silent e. 

• RF.K.3d Distinguish between similarly spelled words by identifying the sounds of the letters that differ.

  • The Kindergarten Scope and Sequence states that “this standard is beyond the scope and sequence of the grade K of this program.”

Lessons include blending and segmenting practice using structured, consistent blending routines with teacher modeling. Examples include, but are not limited to the following: 

• In Lesson 5, Day 2, the teacher explains that students are going to learn to write words. The teacher says the first word, mat. The teacher models saying the sounds as she writes them: /m/ m /ă/ a /t/ t. The teacher then has the students practice with the words map and nap. These words align with the letter m taught in this lesson.

• In Lesson 7, Day 1, the teacher models decoding the word him. The teacher tells students to put their finger on the word him in their Student Workbook. The teacher says, “Listen to how I figure out how to read the word spelled h-i-m. The first letter is h. The sound of the letter h is /h/. The next letter is i. The sound of the letter i is /ĭ/. The last letter is m. The sound of the letter m is /m/. The sounds are /h/ /ĭ/ /m/. The word is him, as in the phrase ‘clap for him.’”

Lessons include dictation of words and sentences using the newly taught phonics pattern(s). Examples include, but are not limited to the following: 

• In Lesson 14, Day 4, the teacher reviews the letter v and the sound /v/. The teacher models writing the sentence Get in the van. The teacher says the sentence aloud and asks how many words you hear, what the first word is, and what the sounds and letters are in the first word. The teacher repeats the sentence and repeats the process for the rest of the words in the dictated sentence. 

• In Lesson 24, Day 5, the teacher models writing the sentence, Mud is on my white hat. The teacher says the sentence and identifies the number of words. The teacher models encoding the word mud by saying each sound, then the letter name, and writing the letter for each sound. The teacher repeats for each word, either saying the sounds and letter names while writing or identifying the previously learned high-frequency words and saying the spelling of the word aloud while writing the letters. 

Materials include teacher guidance for corrective feedback when needed for students. Examples include, but are not limited to the following: 

• In the Ancillary materials, Teacher’s Material, the Corrective Feedback for Positive Achievement document provides examples for teachers on how to give corrective feedback for one-syllable and multisyllable words.

The materials include frequent student practice opportunities for students to decode and encode words in the context of phrases and sentences. Decoding practice opportunities at the word level are limited to Lessons 5, 7, and 8, and these instances include only two to four words per practice opportunity. Student decoding practice builds quickly toward application in phrase and sentence-level tasks but is limited in word-level tasks focused on accuracy and automaticity. Encoding practice opportunities at the word level are limited to Lessons 3-10, building quickly to application at the phrase and sentence level. 

Lessons provide students with frequent opportunities to decode words with taught phonics patterns. Examples include, but are not limited to the following: 

• In Lesson 11, the letters j and w are introduced. On Day 1, students read the following phrases: can jog, did a job, can do a jig. On Day 2, students read the following sentences: Jim is in a jam. Jim has a rag. Lil hid. Is Dad mad? On Day 3, students read the following sentences: Jim and Lil are not sad. They can go jog. Jim and Lil are pals. On Day 4, students read the following sentences: Who can play? They look for Sam and Bob. Sam and Bob want to play. Sam and Bob want to win. On Day 5, students read the following sentences: Nan and Pam hid a red cap. Will Sam and Bob find it and win? They did not find the red cap. Sam and Bob did not win.

• In Lesson 23, the Long e Silent -e pattern is introduced. On Day 1, students read the following sentences: Zeke saw his new hat. His hat was in the mud. “This is not good,” he said. Zeke dug under the mud. He got his hat. On Day 2, students read a story called The Box, containing one word related to the phonics pattern, Pete. On Day 3, students read the following sentences: Can Pete get there? The bus can get him there. Is this the bus? That is the bus. On Day 4, students reread the story The Box. On Day 5, students read the following sentences: Eve got a new bike. We all like it. The bike is yellow like the sun. Now Eve can ride up and down. 

Lessons provide students with frequent opportunities to encode words with taught phonics patterns. Examples include, but are not limited to the following: 

• In Lesson 3, students are introduced to the letters n and a. On Day 3, students write the words at and an. On Day 4, students write the following words: nan and nap. On Day 5, students write the words pan and nap. 

• In Lesson 14, the letters y and v are introduced. On Day 3, students write the following sentences: The kit is in a red bag. Look in my kit. I zip the red bag. On Day 4, students write the following sentences: Ken hops in the van. The cat hops in the van. On Day 5, students write the following sentences: Sis said yes. Vic said yes. The word yes is provided in a box as a high-frequency word. 

Student-guided practice and independent practice of blending sounds using the sound-spelling pattern(s) is varied and frequent. Examples include, but are not limited to the following: 

• In Lesson 8, Day 2, students read the words ban, bad, and bit in the Student Workbook. Students point to each letter and say the sound, then read the word. 

• In Lesson 10, Day 2, students read and write the words can, cab, and cap. Students say the word, stretching or segmenting the sounds, saying the sound and letter name while writing each letter, and finally blending and reading the word.

• In Lesson 14, Day 1, students read sentences including, Bob said to play tag, Students check a word bank of high-frequency words to determine if the word is a high-frequency word. If the word is not a high-frequency word, students point to each letter, say the sounds, and then read the words.

Materials provide minimal opportunities for students to engage in word-level decoding practice focused on accuracy and automaticity. Examples include, but are not limited to the following:  

• In Lesson 5, Day 4, students read the words map and nap in the Student Workbook. Students point to each letter and say the sound, then blend the sounds to read the word. 

• In Lesson 7, Day 3, students read the words bag and bad in the Student Workbook. Students point to each letter and say the sound, then blend the sounds to read the word.

The materials contain limited instruction related to spelling rules or generalizations. Specifically, the vowel silent e pattern is not explicitly and systematically introduced. There are missed opportunities for the materials to provide teachers with information about the position of sounds in words and how they are spelled. Spelling opportunities for students to practice newly acquired sound-symbol correspondences are limited.

Spelling rules and generalizations are minimally aligned to the phonics scope and sequence. Examples include, but are not limited to the following: 

• In Lesson 3, the Scope and Sequence indicates a focus on letters n and a. The lesson includes teacher modeling of spelling the words at, an, Nan, nap, and pan, saying each sound while writing the letter. 

• In Lesson 7, Day 1, the Scope and Sequence indicates a focus on the letter h. Only the word him contains the letter h for word reading, and only the word ham contains letter h for spelling. All words for reading and writing contain previously learned letter-sound correspondences.

• In Lesson 15, Day 1, the Scope and Sequence indicates a focus on the letter u. The letter u appears in two out of the four words in the initial sound practice activity. The letter u occurs in the word bus for the writing of the sentence Who will go on the bus?

• In Lesson 21, Day 3, the Scope and Sequence indicates a focus on Long i Silent-e. Activities include Letter-Sound Correspondence i, Reading Sentences with words Mike, line, and Writing Sentences such as The ox likes to run.

Materials include limited explanations for spelling of specific words or spelling rules. Examples include, but are not limited to the following:

• In Lesson 15, Day 3, the materials contain a note at the bottom of the page that says, “In English, the letter q usually appears at the beginning of a word or syllable and is followed by the letter u.”

• In Lesson 23, Day 1, the materials contain a note at the bottom of the page that says, “The letter s is pronounced /z/ in the word his. This is also the case for other high-frequency words, including as, is, has, was.

Students have limited opportunities to practice spelling rules and generalizations. Examples include, but are not limited to the following: 

• In Lesson 18, Day 1, students review short vowel patterns. Students write the sentences, I like to play with Jen, Jen can run well, and Jen can jump well. 

The materials provide a limited variety of assessment opportunities over the year to demonstrate students’ progress toward mastery and independence in phonics. Summative unit assessments are the only form of assessment to utilize with all students as the Phonics Screener for Intervention (PSI) is optional. Materials lack formative assessments and progress monitoring. The summative unit assessment materials provide teachers and students with information concerning students’ current skills/level of understanding of phonics. However, materials provide teachers with limited instructional suggestions for assessment-based steps to help students progress toward mastery of phonics.

Materials provide a limited variety of assessment opportunities over the course of the year to demonstrate students’ progress toward mastery and independence in phonics. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:

• According to the Scope and Sequence/Assessment Overview, Summative Unit Assessments take place at the end of each of the six units based on the learning from that unit after one week of review. Each unit spans three to five weeks. Specifically:

  • Lessons 1-4: Assessment #1: Letter Name/Sounds for consonants T, P, N and short vowel sound /ă/

  • Lessons 5-8: Assessment #2: Letter Name/Sound for consonants M, D, G, S, H, B and short vowel sounds /ă/ and /ĭ/

  • Lessons 9-12: Assessment #3: Letter Name/Sound for consonants L, R, C, F, J, W and short vowel sounds /ă/, /ĭ/, /ŏ/

  • Lessons 13-16: Assessment #4: Letter Name/Sound for consonants Z, K, Y, V, Q, X, and all short vowel sounds 

  • Lessons 17-19: Assessment #5: Consonant sounds and all short vowel sounds

  • Lessons 20-25: Assessment #6: Consonant sounds and long-vowel silent-e

• In the Phonics Screener for Intervention User Manual, the materials state, “The PSI can be given as soon as a need for increased accuracy in reading is identified.” This assessment assesses using both real and nonsense words in the areas of basic phonics skills (short vowels in VC and CVC words), short vowels with consonant blends, short vowels with consonant digraphs, and long vowels spelled with the silent-e pattern), advanced phonics skills (vowel teams including predictable and unpredictable, vowel-r, and complex consonants), six syllable types, and sight words. Form A is used for the initial assessment and Forms B and C are available for retesting to determine whether a student has mastered the skill.

Assessment materials provide teachers and students with information concerning students’ current skills/level of understanding of phonics. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:

• In the Assessment Overview, the materials state, “The summative assessment is used to determine if students have mastered the critical skills within the unit lessons. If a student misses more than 1 response in a section, check the student’s understanding of the skill with additional items that are similar to those in the assessment.”

• In the Assessment Overview, the materials state, “If at least 80% of the students in the class respond correctly to each section, it is an indication that core instruction is sufficient for acquiring critical reading skills. If less than 80% are responding correctly, additional teaching of the specific skill is recommended.” 

• In the Phonics Screener for Intervention User Manual, the materials state that the purpose is to identify which skills a student has mastered (90% or greater) and which ones he or she is missing (below 90%) using the analysis worksheet. A student’s performance on this sequence of skills provides information about where to begin intervention instruction. 

Materials support teachers with limited instructional suggestions for assessment-based steps to help students to progress toward mastery in phonics. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:

• In the Assessment Overview, the materials state: “If less than 80% [of the students in the class] are responding correctly, additional teaching of the specific skill is recommended during Tier 1 core instruction either as a whole group or in a differentiated small group.” The materials do not provide guidance on that instruction. 

• In the Assessment Overview, the materials state that if a student does not have mastery of the skill, the student “may require additional practice opportunities, re-teaching, or additional time to master the skill(s),” but the materials do not support the teacher with instructional suggestions. 

• In the Phonics Screener for Intervention User Manual, the materials state that by analyzing the data on the analysis worksheets, the teacher can focus instruction on the specific needs of the struggling reader. Instruction can be focused and explicit for skills that were not previously learned. The teacher groups students based on any skill the student scored below 90% on to provide focused, direct, and explicit instruction in the needed skill are, but the manual does not provide specifics.

The materials offer limited instruction and practice in syllabication and morpheme analysis. While the materials introduce CVC, CV, and CVCe words, there are missed opportunities to explain the word structure and corresponding vowel sounds; the teacher and students decode and encode the words with minimal explanation of when vowel sounds are short or long. The program does not include morpheme analysis in Kindergarten. 

Materials contain limited instruction of syllable types and routines for syllable division that promote decoding and encoding of words. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:

• In Lesson 23, Day 1, the teacher reminds students that they have been studying the /ē/ sound spelled long e silent e. The teacher displays the word Zeke, the silent e word found in the Student Workbook sentences. However, the materials do not state that this is a VCe syllable type.  

• In Lesson 24, Day 5, the teacher reminds students that they have been studying the /ū/ and /yū/ sounds spelled long u silent e. The teacher displays the words mule and use, silent e words found in the Student Workbook sentences. The materials note that ride is another long vowel silent e word that is included in the Student Workbook sentences. However, the materials do not state that this is a VCe syllable type.  

Materials contain frequent explicit instruction in morpheme analysis to decode unfamiliar words. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:

• No evidence found

Multiple and varied 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, the following:

• In Lesson 19, Day 1, in the reading section, students are given the following routine to practice reading words: look at each word and decide if it is a high-frequency word. If it is a high-frequency word, read the word; if it is not a high-frequency word, sound out the letters. No explicit strategy is given for different syllable types. 

• In Lesson 21, Day 1, students read sentences containing long vowel silent e words. The teacher reminds students they have been studying long vowel sounds spelled with silent e, and then students read the sentences, The sun made Mom hot, Can Mike help?, and Mike will look for the hat. The materials do not include syllable-type instruction. 

• In Lesson 22, Day 3, students read sentences containing long vowel silent e words. The teacher reminds students they have been studying the /ō/ sound spelled with silent e. Then, students read the sentences, He rode the jet to see Nan and I hope to go see Nan. The materials do not provide instruction on syllable type.