Kindergarten - Gateway 2

The materials reviewed for Kindergarten meet the criteria for materials to contain a teacher edition with ample and useful annotations and suggestions on how to present the content in the student materials. Where applicable, materials include teacher guidance for the use of embedded technology to support and enhance student learning.

The Teacher Guide facilitates foundational skill instruction through consistent written step-by-step directions and visuals. Each lesson provides the teacher with explicit routines, timelines, materials, and assessments. There is a consistent lesson structure that starts with a Warm-Up, then moves into phonological awareness, phonics instruction, and then writing. It is important to note that for some of the procedures, it references going back to an earlier unit instead of typing out steps in each lesson.

The materials provide a well-defined, Teacher Guide for content presentation. Materials include a Table of Contents, Common Core Alignment, Primary Focus Objectives for each lesson, Formative Assessments, and a Lesson at a Glance. Grouping strategies and suggested times are provided. An advanced preparation chart guides the teacher in preparation for each lesson. For example, in Skills 5, Lesson 4, the teacher needs specific large letter cards and needs to display a lowercase alphabet strip on the board. There are sidebars throughout the program that list supports and challenges that might apply to various learners.

The Teacher Guide contains instructional routines to help the teacher effectively implement all foundational skills content. The teacher regularly uses picture readers, blending picture cards, a chaining folder, large letter cards, sound cards, small letter cards, and sound posters. All lessons follow a similar routine. Lessons start with a warm-up introducing a new sound orally. For example, in Skills 6, Lesson 1, the Teacher Guide instructs the teacher to have students practice blending sounds into three, four, and five sound words.

Technology supports and guides the teacher. For example, there is a sound library resource that models the correct pronunciation of each sound. The teacher can sort the sounds by grade level or use the search feature.

The materials reviewed for Kindergarten meet the criteria for materials to contain full, adult-level explanations and examples of the foundational skills concepts included in the program. Teachers can use the materials to improve their own knowledge of the subject.

The materials include an overview of the foundational skills taught at the grade level, with complete, detailed adult-level explanations. In the introduction to each unit, there are explanations and a rationale behind the instructional practices presented to students. Examples of each concept are provided along with additional information to support the teacher in delivering the lessons. Appendix A includes a detailed explanation of the Simple View of Reading. It also informs the program design and has detailed explanations for the difference between sight words and tricky words.

Throughout the program there are complete, adult-level explanations for each foundational skill. Each lesson includes a primary focus objective and the corresponding Common Core State Standard(s). The Teacher Guide introduction provides an overview of the lessons and skills taught throughout the unit. Some specific examples include:

• In Appendix A, at the back of the Kindergarten Skills there is an in-depth explanation of how CKLA is taught and how they define key terms such as phonological awareness and phonics. Examples include:
• CKLA focuses on sounds, or phonemes, as the primary organizing principle of the program, rather than letters.
• CKLA focuses consistently on the phoneme, or single sound, and not on larger units. Students read words that contain onsets, rimes, and consonant clusters, and they learn to view and process these larger units as combinations of smaller phoneme-level units.
• CKLA includes phonics instruction, but the instruction differs from the phonics usually taught in the United States. It begins with sounds and then attaches those sounds to spellings. In a typical phonics lesson in the United States, the teacher writes the letter ‘m’ on the board and says, “This is the letter ‘em’. It says /m/.” The teacher is asked to present lessons in a different way. The teacher will begin by teaching the the sound. At the beginning of the lesson the teacher will tell the class: “Today’s sound is /m/.” Then the teacher will lead the class in some engaging oral language exercises that allows students to say and hear the sound /m/. Once students are familiar with the sound, the teacher will show them how to draw a “picture of the sound.” The teacher will write the letter ‘m’ on the board and explain that "this is how we make a picture of the /m/ sound."
• Appendix B includes definitions of key foundational skills terms used in each unit. For example:
• Unit 1: phonological awareness (hearing environmental sounds, hearing words in phrases and sentences); prewriting skills (tripod grip, lines, circles, etc.)
• Unit 2: phonemic awareness (hearing sounds in words); oral blending of sounds (e.g., given /f/ . . . /i/ . . . /sh/, the student can blend the sounds to make the word fish)
• In Skills 1, the introduction provides an overview of Unit 1. The overview indicates that the first purpose is to increase student awareness of environmental noises and words within sentences. It goes on to explain, “paying attention to environmental noises and to words within sentences prepares students to pay attention to sounds within words.”
• In Skills 4, the Teacher Guide states, “One difference you will notice are the Warm-Ups, which suggest you begin using finger gestures to show the segmentation of words into sounds. Previously, you may have used arm gestures for blending. The segmenting gestures are explained clearly in the lessons.”
• In Skills 9, the teacher is given an explanation for a routine for oral blending using hand motions. It states, “The finger taps represent sounds. This helps students hear and distinguish individual sounds.”

There are detailed examples of the grade-level foundational skill concepts for the teachers. Examples include:

• In Skills 1, Lesson 1, the students work on distinguishing discrete noises. Guidance is given to the teacher such as, “This experience is important because it requires students to distinguish discrete noises. This is similar to distinguishing discrete sounds in spoken words.”
• In Skills 4, Lesson 1, students work on oral segmenting and some of the instructions for teachers include, “Remind students that they have practiced blending. Guide students in blending the following sounds as an example: /g/.../oe/>go.” and “Wiggle or move your index finger and say the first sound in the word. /g/ (see illustration 2A).”

The materials reviewed for Kindergarten meet the criteria for scope and sequence clearly delineates the sequence in which phonological awareness skills are taught, with a clear, evidence-based explanation for the expected hierarchy of phonemic awareness competence.

In Kindergarten, the Teacher Guide, Appendix A provides an explanation for the sequence of phonological awareness skills. The Teacher Guide states, “CKLA focuses consistently on the phoneme, or single sound, and not on larger units.” The progression of phonological awareness skills allows students to learn in a sequential way to build their understanding of phonemic awareness. The Standards Alignment document provides both the grade-level Standard Alignment and Individual Skills Standard Alignment, providing a cohesive sequence of instruction for phonemic awareness.

Materials contain a clear, evidence-based explanation for the expected hierarchy for teaching phonological awareness skills. Some examples include:

• In the Program Guide, the materials explain that the program is based on the Simple View of Reading and “The Skills strand is built upon a large research base including the National Reading Panel...” Furthermore, the materials state, “Each lesson is dedicated to print concepts, phonological awareness, and phonics, and word recognition.”
• The Program Guide says, “In CKLA phonics instruction, students are first introduced to the sound and participate in interactive, engaging oral language exercises in which they repeatedly say and hear the sound.”
• In Skills 1, Introduction, the materials state that the teacher needs to spend time in phonological awareness to lay a foundation of reading and not skip the lessons. It goes on to say, “Some teachers may be unaccustomed to spending instructional time on the types of phonological awareness and prerequisite writing skills that are the focus of instruction in Unit 1….As noted earlier, the activities included in Units 1 and 2, while seemingly simple, lay a critical foundation for the reading instruction in later units.”

Materials contain a coherent phonemic awareness sequence of instruction and practice based on the expected hierarchy. The Kindergarten Skills Scope and Sequence Guide on page 8 of the Introduction in the Assessment and Remediation Guide shows the sequence of phonological awareness instruction. This includes:

• In Skills 1, students work on understanding spoken words, syllables, and sounds.
• In Skills 2 and 3, the teacher models and the students practice sound blending. There is a focus on syllables and sounds, including counting, pronouncing, and blending. Students isolate and pronounce the initial, medial vowel, and final sound in CVC words.
• In Skills 4, the teacher models, and the students practice sound segmenting as well as adding or substituting individual sounds to make new words.
• In Skills 5 and 6, students learn both sound blending and sound segmenting. Students work on rhyming words.
• In Skills 7, students start to learn consonant blends in the segmenting activities, and students continue to recognize and produce rhyming words.
• In Skills 8, students recognize and produce rhyming words, isolate and pronounce initial, medial vowel, and final sounds in CVC words, and substitute and add sounds to make new words.
• In Skills 9, students review oral blending with words with more than three phonemes.
• In Skills 10, students learn oral segmenting of two syllable words.

The materials reviewed for Kindergarten meet the criteria for a scope and sequence that clearly delineates an intentional sequence in which phonics skills are to be taught, with a clear explanation for the order of the sequence.

The materials include a coherent scope and sequence of phonics instruction that builds toward application of skills. Through the research base and sequence of instruction, the program teaches the 150 spellings for the 44 sounds of the English language throughout the first three years of school. The scope and sequence can be found in the Table of Contents, the Appendix, the Scope and Sequence document, and the Alignment Chart. Research found in the Research Guide explains the underlying reason for the order of instruction.

Materials clearly delineate a scope and sequence with a cohesive, intentional sequence of phonics instruction and practice to build toward application of skills. In the Resources, a Scope and Sequence of the Skills strand is identified for each grade level. The materials provide the scope and sequence, broken apart by the focus of each lesson, for each Unit in the Skills Strand. In addition, the Table of Contents for each Skills Teacher Guide provides a reference sequence of phonics instruction and activities in the lesson that build toward application of the skill. The following is the Kindergarten Scope & Sequence (note: in the Appendix B, which lists the Scope & Sequence, it is labeled as Unit instead of Skills):

• Unit 3: letter-sound correspondence and spelling for /m/, /a/, /t/, /d/, /o/, /k/ spelled c, /g/, /i/, and read and write VC and CVC words.
• Unit 4: letter-sound correspondence and spelling for /n/, /h/, /s/, /f/, /v/, /z/, /p/, /e/ and read short phrases and first story.
• Unit 5: letter-sound correspondence and spelling for /b/, /l/, /r/, /u/, /w/, /y/, /j/, /y/, /x/, /k/ and read and write VC and CVC words as well as read and write short phrases and sentences that begin with upper case letters.
• Unit 6: Initial and final consonant clusters and read and write CVCC, CCVC, CCVCC words, plus letter-sound correspondence for /z/ spelled s and plural words.
• Unit 7: consonant digraphs, read and write one syllable words containing up to 7 letters, and read decodable stories.
• Unit 8: double letter sound spellings of bb, dd, ff, gg, ll, mm, nn, pp, rr, ss, tt, zz, and /k/ spelled cc.
• Unit 9: identify and write uppercase letters.
• Unit 10: letter-sound correspondence for vowel-consonant-e words.

Materials have a clear research-based explanation for the order of the phonics sequence. Some of this includes:

• “Research consistently demonstrates that explicit phonics instruction has important, lasting benefits to children’s reading accuracy, and this is one of the most emphasized aspects of phonics instruction for English language learners, as well as children struggling to learn reading (August et al., 2005, Brady, 2011; DeGraaff et al., 2009; Ehri et al., 2001; Torgesen, 2006; Torgesen et al., 2001; Vaughn, 2007).”
• Materials include “a variety of features designed to minimize confusion and maximize practice and application of each sound spelling, consistent with research that such an approach leads to significant benefits in efficiency and in accuracy with children’s learning (Share, 1995; Torgesen, 2006; Torgesen et al., 2001; Ziegler and Goswami, 2005).”
• “Emphasizing the use of systematic, mastery-oriented practice that distinguishes the program from many other explicit phonics instructional programs….CKLA’s approach balances both the motivation and mastery aspects of practice (Carpenter et al., 2012., 2012; Cepeda et al., 2006; Gerbier and Toppino, 2015).”
• CKLA teaches “phonics and reading/writing fundamentals through an integrated system of assessment, general curriculum, and supplementary curricular materials designed for added differentiation and support. Research finds that one of the challenges in providing differentiated instruction to students is a lack of specifically designed activities or ideas that relate to the skills or targets taught within the general curriculum (e.g., Al Otailba et al., 2011).”
• In Skills 1, the introduction states, “CKLA includes explicit, systematic phonics instruction, but the instruction differs from the type of phonics usually taught in the United States in that it begins with a focus on sounds and then links those sounds to spellings.” It states, “CKLA uses a synthetic phonics approach which teaches students to read by blending through the word; it does not teach multiple cueing strategies, use of pictures as a primary resource in decoding, or part-word guessing.”
• In Skills 1, Appendix A, the Teacher Guide references Philip Gough and William Tunmer’s research on the Simple View of Reading and its focus on word recognition skills and language comprehension.

Phonics instruction is based in high utility patterns and/or common phonics generalizations. CKLA explicitly teaches the 150 spellings of the 44 sounds throughout kindergarten, Grade 1, and Grade 2. Phonics instruction is taught one phoneme/grapheme at a time in Skills 3-6, and then moves to digraphs and letter clusters in Skills 7. In Skills 10, the long vowel sounds/phonics patterns are introduced.

Patterns and generalizations are carefully selected to provide a meaningful and manageable number of patterns and common generalizations for students to learn deeply. According to the program, the sequence of instruction “progresses from the most common, least ambiguous spellings in Kindergarten to the least frequent, most confusing sound spellings in Grade 2.” One phoneme pattern or common generalization is taught per lesson. The Teacher Guide, Appendix A, provides an explanation for the sequence of phonological awareness skills.

The materials reviewed for Kindergarten meet the criteria for materials to include decodable texts with phonics aligned to the program’s scope and sequence.

The materials include decodable texts that align to the scope and sequence, beginning in Skills 6, which provide students the opportunities to apply phonics skills to reading. The decodable texts are used for multiple reading opportunities.

Materials include decodable texts to address securing phonics. For example:

• In the K-2 Program Guide, it explains, “These readers contain decodable text aligned to the sequence of phonics instruction. In kindergarten, an additional pre-decodable Picture Reader combines rebus pictures with high frequency words.”
• In The K-2 Program Guide, it explains, “CKLA Readers are built according to the program and the code students have been introduced to.”
• In Skills 4, Lesson 13 students read the Big Book “Pet Fun” as a class. It contains words to practice the letter sounds /a/, /t/, /m/, /o/, and /n/ and CVC words.
• In Skills 6, the Introduction provides information for the introduction of the Reader. The stories are 100% decodable and the first few stories are short and simple. “The length of the stories and the level of complexity will increase as students learn more letter-sound correspondences and augment their decoding skills.”

Decodable texts contain grade-level phonics skills aligned to the program’s scope and sequence. Examples include:

• In Skills 6, the decodable reader includes the skills students already have learned and the skills students learn in this unit. For example, it says that in the story “Kit” consonant clusters such as sk, fl, sw will be found and in “Kit’s Hats,” the sound /z/ as in has will be included.
• In Skills 7, the decodable reader, “Seth” aligns with the digraphs taught during the skills lessons. Specifically, in Lesson 14, students read “Lunch,” which includes words such as chips, munch, fish, Seth, and with.
• In Skills 8, the decodable reader lists the vowel and consonant sounds and spellings students will encounter in “On the Bus” such as words with double-letter spellings and in “The Jazz” students will encourage /z/ as in jazz.
• In Skills 10, the reader lists the phonics skills students will encounter while reading. It explains that beginning with “Scott and Lee,” the sound /ee/ spelled ee will be found and in the “The Gift,” the sound /oe/ spells o_e will be found in the text.

Materials include detailed lesson plans for repeated readings of decodable texts to address securing phonics skills. Examples include:

• In Skills 6, the Introduction explains that students will be rereading the text including partner reading. The introduction says, “It is also beneficial for students to read stories more than once, preferably two to four times over a period of several days.”
• In Skills 6, Lesson 5, during small groups, students are encouraged to go back and reread stories in the decodable reader once the student reads the text with a partner.
• In Skills 8, Lesson 4, students reread the decodable text “Fun at the Pond” either in a small group or with a partner.
• In Skills 10, Lesson 2, students begin rereading stories such as “Scott and Lee” that they have already read in their Decodable Reader.

The materials reviewed for Kindergarten meet the criteria for materials to include decodable texts with high-frequency words aligned to the program’s scope and sequence.

The materials include decodable texts for each unit beginning in Unit 6 that are aligned to the scope and sequence. Decodable texts contain opportunities for students to practice reading high-frequency words in context. Students reread these texts in small groups with partners.

Materials include decodable texts that utilize high-frequency/irregularly spelled words. Examples include:

• In Skills 5, Lesson 15, in the Big Book story “Ox and Man,” high-frequency words such as and, at, him, but, and on are found in the text.
• In Skills 6, the Reader includes the Tricky Words a, blue, look, one, the, three, two, and yellow.
• In Skills 7, the Reader includes Tricky Words such as look, three, two, and yellow.
• In Skills 9, the Reader includes some Tricky Words such as all, are, blue, down, from, and look.
• In Skills 10, the Reader includes some Tricky Words students already know including blue, here, once, says, three, and where. As students read the text, additional words are added such as he, she, and we with the story “Red Ants” and they and their with the story “Cake and Grapes.”

Decodable texts contain high-frequency/irregularly spelled words aligned to the program’s scope and sequence. Examples include:

• In Skills 4, students learn the Tricky Words the and a and these words are found in the Picture Reader in Lesson 15.
• In Skills 6, students learn the Tricky Words I, am, and little and these words are taught at the beginning of the Skills 7 Reader.
• In Skills 8, students learn the Tricky Words funny, all, from, and was and all of these words are included in the decodable stories.
• In Skills 9, students learn Tricky Words such as once, said, no, says, and are, and all of these are found in the text “Bug and Frog” in Lesson 16.
• In Skills 10, students learn the Tricky Words he, she, we, be, me, they, their, my, by, you, and your and these words are taught throughout the unit.

Materials include detailed lesson plans for repeated readings of decodable texts to address securing reading of high-frequency words/irregularly spelled words in context. Examples include:

• In Skills 6, Lesson 5, students reread the Decodable Reader, which contains Tricky Words such as am and little in small groups and/or with a partner.
• In Skills 8, Lesson 7, students reread the story “Tasks,” which includes the Tricky Word all. One group of students rereads the text with the teacher and the other group rereads the text with a partner.
• In Skills 9, some students reread the text, “On the Mat” with a partner.
• In Skills 10, Lesson 2, during small group instruction, students begin rereading stories that they have already read in their Decodable Reader, which contain Tricky Words such as he, they, and their.

The materials reviewed for Kindergarten meet the criteria for materials to regularly and systematically offer assessment opportunities that measure student progress through mastery of print concepts (K-1), letter recognition (K only), and printing letters (as indicated by the program scope and sequence) (K-1).

Materials offer assessments throughout the year. There are formative assessments throughout the Skills units and Summative Assessments at the end of the Units. Assessments require students to show understanding of print concepts, letter recognition, and printing letters.

Materials regularly and systematically provide a variety of assessment opportunities for students over the course of the year. The teacher can use the data to measure progress toward mastery and independence of print concepts, letter recognition, and letter formation.

• In Skills 1, Lesson 6, the teacher assesses students through observation using an anecdotal skills record.
• In Skills 1, Lesson 10, the Student Performance Assessment materials state, “In Lesson 10, you will be prompted to use activity pages during instructional time to assess students’ ability to copy a circle and horizontal, vertical, and diagonal lines: to understand the position words left, right, top, middle, and bottom; and to discriminate the number of words heard in a spoken sentence. Instructions for administering and scoring the assessment are included in Lesson 10.”
• In Skills 2, Lesson 10, the Student Performance Assessment materials state, “In Lesson 10, you will be prompted to use activity pages during instructional time to assess students’ ability to copy previously taught writing strokes, as well as draw a cup, a hump, a zigzag, a wavy line, a spiral, a +, an x, a loop, a cane, and a hook.”
• In Skills 3, Lesson 1, materials contain a formative assessment using Student Activity page 1.1 called Spell the Sound. Students spell the sound for the sound /m/.
• In Skills 3, Lesson 11, the Student Performance Assessment has students accurately write the following lowercase letters: m, t, d, c, g, i, a.
• In Skills 4, Lesson 11, the Student Performance Assessment has students accurately write the following lowercase letters: m, n, p, t, d, f, v, c, g, s, z, h, i, a, o, e.
• In Skills 6, Lesson 17, the Student Performance Assessment, Student Activity 17.1 Part A, in each row students circle a certain letter. In Part B, students read “Fast Fred” and the teacher observes tracking and punctuation.
• In Skills 6, Section 3 of the Assessment and Remediation Guide, there is a letter naming assessment.
• In Skills 7, Lesson 16, Student Performance Assessment, there is a letter name assessment. Materials state, “Tell students you will ask them to point to a row and listen as you say the name of a letter. Tell students they are to circle the letter you name. Ask students to point to row number 1. Say the letter name for ‘e’ (eeee). Repeat two times, giving students time to circle a letter. Continue in the same manner with each of the letters in the box.”

Assessment materials provide teachers and students with information concerning current skills/level of understanding of print concepts, letter recognition, and letter formation.

• In the Assessment and Remediation Guide, there is a flow chart for each skill assessed that helps the teacher know which lessons to use next whether it is a Pausing Points activity or a lesson from the Assessment and Remediation Guide.
• Within the Skills Units, formative assessments are marked for the teacher to gather data on students and determine if there are needs for additional support.

Materials support teachers with instructional suggestions for assessment-based steps to help students to progress toward mastery in print concepts, letter recognition, and letter formation.

• For each skill, Sample Remediation lessons are in the Assessment and Remediation Guides.
• Skill 3 Assessment and Remediation Guide contains sample remediation lessons.
• Formative assessments during a Skills Unit help the teacher know how much time is needed by a class or small group on Pausing Points or additional support activities found within the unit.
• In Skills 7, Pausing Points provide instructional suggestions for progress toward mastery. For extra help with letter sounds and names, there are four additional lessons.

The materials reviewed for Kindergarten meet the criteria for materials to regularly and systematically offer assessment opportunities that measure student progress of phonological awareness (as indicated by the program scope and sequence).

Materials regularly and systematically provide a variety of assessment opportunities over the course of the year to demonstrate student progress toward mastery and independence in phonological awareness. There are Unit Assessments, observation forms, and checks for understanding. The Assessment and Remediation Guide provides an outline of Phonological Awareness Assessment activities over the course of the year. The Skills Units have multiple opportunities, both through observations and assessments, to measure student progress of phonological awareness. Additionally, the Assessment and Remediation Guide provides opportunities for phonological awareness assessment.

Formative assessment through observation and student activity pages are built into each Skills Teacher Guide. Examples include:

• In Skills 1 of the Assessment and Remediation Guide, there is a “Determining Student Need” flow chart, which will help teachers “consider student performance across the lessons and with any Pausing Points utilized...” If students struggled significantly with activities from particular rows of the chart, the unit objective to target is indicated in the first column.
• In Skills 2, Lesson 10, a blending assessment is provided that corresponds with student Activity Page 10.2. The teacher states sounds, and the students blend the sounds in their head and pick the corresponding picture from a set of three pictures.
• In Skills 2, Lesson 30, the second part of the Unit Assessment evaluates a student's blending skills. It states, “Make any note of any error patterns you notice for particular students.... Provide practice for students whose performance falls in the weak range using Additional Support activities...”
• In Skills 4, Lesson 3, students take turns isolating sounds following the procedure modeled by the teacher, and the teacher records the student’s response in the Oral Segmenting Observation Record.

Assessment materials provide teachers and students with information concerning current skills/levels of understanding of phonological awareness.

• In Skills 1, the Assessment and Remediation Guide tells teachers, “Establish(ing) a level of instructional need will direct you to a corresponding lesson structure provided at the beginning of each unit. Select exercises and assessments and prepare associated materials for instruction and progress monitoring.”
• In Skills 2, Lesson 10, the oral blending assessment has the students blend together a group of sounds that the teacher says and then circle the picture of the corresponding word. It recommends recording student scores in the Record Sheet for Unit 2 Student Performance Assessment. Analysis of scores is provided and states “8-10 points excellent, 6-7 points good, 5 or fewer points weak.”
• In Skills 2, Lesson 30 of the Unit Assessment states, “Provide practice for students whose performance falls in the weak range using Additional Support Activities...”
• In Skills 4, Lesson 11, an observation form for oral segmenting is provided.

Materials support teachers with instructional suggestions for assessment-based steps to show a student's progress toward mastery in phonological awareness. Examples include:

• In Skills 2, Assessment and Remediation Guide, blending and segmenting syllables and blending phonemes is assessed and flow charts are provided to determine a student's level of understanding and next steps to take based on observations and the Student Performance Assessment located in the Skills Teacher Guide.
• In Skills 7, Assessment and Remediation Guide, segmenting a spoken word in phonemes is assessed, and a flow chart is provided to determine a student's level of understanding and next steps to take based on observations and the Student Performance Task Assessment.

The materials reviewed for Kindergarten meet the criteria for materials to regularly and systematically offer assessment opportunities that measure student progress of phonics (as indicated by the program scope and sequence).

The materials provide phonics assessment materials and tools that include scoring and recording sheets to collect ongoing data about student progress in phonics. The materials help teachers determine student progress through the systematic implementation of the Student Performance Assessments in the Skills Unit and the Phonics Progress Monitoring assessments in the Assessment and Remediation Guide. The materials include instructional adjustments to help students make progress towards mastery in phonics with scoring information, item analysis charts, and remediation lessons in the Assessment and Remediation Guide.

Materials provide resources and tools to collect ongoing data about a student's progress in phonics. For example:

• In Skills 3, the Assessment and Remediation Guide provides a Phonics Progress Monitoring assessment. The assessment is composed of six words that students read and a record sheet is provided.
• In Skills 6, the Assessment and Remediation Guide provides a Phonics Progress Monitoring assessment which is composed of nine words that students read aloud. A recording sheet is provided.
• In Skills 6, additional assessments are provided in the Pausing Points to assess the phonics skills of the students.
• In Skills 8, Lesson 15, students receive a word recognition assessment. The teacher says a word, and students find it on their sheet and circle the word.

Materials offer assessment opportunities that are implemented systematically to determine student progress in phonics. Examples include:

• In Skills 5, Lessons 12 and 13, students complete an assessment. In Part 1 of the assessment, the teacher says a word, and students circle the correct word. In Part 2, the teacher assesses students individually if they scored 7 or lower in Part 1.
• In Skills 6, Lesson 17, students read consonant clusters and if they score less than 7 points, they take an additional assessment the next day.
• In Skills 7, Lessons 11 and 12, students are assessed on CVCC and CCVC words. The teacher says a word and the students circle the correct one. If students score 7 or fewer points in Part 1, students are individually assessed.
• In Skills 8, Lesson 15, students are assessed in a word recognition assessment. If they score below 90%, they are given a pseudoword or real word recognition assessment administered one-one-one the next day.

Multiple assessment opportunities are provided regularly for students to demonstrate progress toward mastery and independence with phonics. Examples include:

• In Skills 4, Lesson 11, students complete a reading assessment where the teacher says 10 CVC words, and the students circle the correct word on the page.
• In Skills 10, Lesson 27, the teacher dictates 15 sounds, and students write corresponding letters.

Assessment materials provide teachers and students with information about students’ current skills/levels of understanding of phonics. Examples include:

• In Skills 3, there is a Phonics Progress Monitoring assessment where students read words. If students score 14-15 points, it is considered excellent; if they score 11-13 points, it is considered good; if they score 8-10 points, it is considered fair; and less than 8 is considered poor.
• In Skills 5, there is a progress monitoring assessment and scores are interpreted as 14-15 points is considered excellent, 11-13 points is considered good, 8-10 points is considered fair, and less than 8 points is considered poor.
• In Skills 6, Lesson 17, students take a Phonics Progress Monitoring assessment. A score of 9 to 10 points is considered excellent, a score of 8 points is considered good, a score of 6 to 7 points is considered fair, and a score that is less than 6 is considered poor.

Materials genuinely measure student progress to support teachers with instructional adjustments to help students make progress toward mastery in phonics. In each Skills Unit, there is a Determining Student Need flow chart for teachers to use to find exercises and assessments for students who need reteaching. Examples include:

• In Skills 3, there is a Phonics Progress Monitoring assessment and if students score 10 points or less, the program indicates that students need reteaching and/or reinforcement, which is found in the Assessment and Remediation Guide, Skills 3, Phonics II.
• In Skills 6, students do a Phonics Progress Monitoring Assessment and if students score 7 points or less, students need additional reteaching and reinforcement from the Assessment and Remediation Guide, Skills 6, Section II, Phonics.

The materials reviewed for Kindergarten meet the criteria for materials to regularly and systematically offer assessment opportunities that measure student progress of word recognition and analysis (as indicated by the program scope and sequence).

The materials include assessments to monitor progress of word recognition and analysis. Information is provided to the teacher regarding student levels and understanding. The materials include information for teachers on interpreting the data to help students progress toward mastery. The Assessment and Remediation Guide provides a summative end of year student performance assessment and more formal assessments to determine the abilities and learning needs of the students.

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 word recognition and analysis.

• In Skills 8, the Introduction states, “It is highly recommended that you assess each student’s recognition of these words at both the beginning and end of the unit on one of these lists.” The lists are the Dolch and Fry Sight Word list.
• In Unit 10, Skills 26, there is an End of Year Student Performance Assessment and part 1B assesses Tricky Words. The teacher says a series of words, but only four of the words are on the printed assessment. Students circle the words that the teacher says.
• In Skills 10, there are optional assessments of the Dolch Sight Words and the Fry Word List and a Dolch Word Assessment Record and a Fry Word Assessment Record is provided.

Assessment materials provide teachers and students with information concerning the current skills/level of understanding of word recognition and word analysis. Examples include:

• In Skills 8, the Assessment and Remediation Guide lists a scoring analysis for Tricky Words. The scoring analysis says, “Scoring is based on one point assigned for every word read correctly. Interpret scores as follows: 7 points - Excellent, 6 points - Good, 5 points - Fair, less than 5 points - Poor.”
• In Skills 9, Lesson 20, students complete a Tricky Word Recognition Assessment using Activity Page 20.1. It states, “A student who scores less than 6 correct needs additional practice with Tricky Words.”

Materials support teachers with instructional suggestions for assessment-based steps to help students progress toward mastery in word recognition and word analysis. Examples include:

• In Skills 8, the Assessment and Remediation guide lists supports for students who struggle to read the high-frequency words a, all, of, one, from and was. It states, “If the student meets expectations, continue with Skills 8, Skills strand sequence. If the student continues to struggle, then use Section I, Phonics in the Skills 8 Assessment and Remediation Guide
• In Skills 9, Lesson 10, a Tricky Word Assessment is provided. The scoring and analysis provides information that students who score 10 or below can benefit from Additional Support activities for additional practice of Tricky Words.

The materials reviewed for Kindergarten meet the criteria for materials to regularly provide all students, including those who read, write, speak, or listen in a language other than English with extensive opportunities for reteaching to meet or exceed grade-level standards.

Throughout the Teacher’s Guide, there is support for English Language Learners, which is found in sidebars throughout lessons. There is specific information about Spanish and English sound correlations as well as a few other languages. The materials provide suggestions for Universal Access, such as photos and pictures to assist with letter sounds and vocabulary acquisition when introducing skills.

Materials provide support for English Language Learner (ELL) students. Examples include:

• In Skills 2, Lesson 1, the teacher is directed to bring in pictures for the words cupcake, bedroom, snowman, seashell, popcorn, rainbow, outside, and bedbug to provide a visual support for students when they may be unable to read or hear what the oral word is or means.
• In Skills 4, Lesson 2, the teacher is informed that in Spanish the letter h is silent and the h sound is made by the letter j. The teacher emphasizes that in English the h makes the /h/ sound.
• In Skills 5, Lesson 4, in a Foundational Skills sidebar, it tells the teacher that in many Asian languages the sounds /l/ and /r/ are heard as variants, and students who are native of Asian languages may need extra practice distinguishing these sounds. It explains that “if students have trouble hearing a word’s initial sound, say the word in a segmented fashion: /r/... /i/.../p/ and then students blend the word.”
• In Skills 7, Lesson 1, the Universal Access tells teachers to bring in a picture of a person skipping, a washcloth, an arm in a sling, a person on a gold medal stand, and a campsite to use in an oral segmenting activity for English Language Learners.
• In Skills 9, Lesson 7, in Universal Access, it is suggested that the teacher brings in pictures of animals to use during an oral blending lesson.

General statements about ELL students or strategies are noted at the beginning of a unit or at one place in the Teacher Guide and are then implemented in the materials throughout the lessons. Examples include:

• In the K-2 Program Guide, it notes that a hand raised icon is an Alert for Access Support to help ELL students access grade-level content.
• In the K-2 Program Guide, it explains a variety of tools to help students, including ELL students, access the curriculum. Some of the tools include the digital component field that allows for a range of presentations of images and text to support learning and clarify language throughout the program.
• In the K-2 Program Guide, it lists a variety of methods for students, including ELL students to demonstrate their learning. This includes the Wiggle Cards that allow students to demonstrate their decoding and a variety of ways to respond to prompts such as oral responses, written responses, and shared class response.
• In Skills 1, the Teacher Guide Introduction states that Additional Support activities are suggested at the end of each lesson and can be used with any student needing more help, including English Language Learners.
• In Skills 1, the Teacher Guide Introduction states that sidebars are found throughout the lesson to provide guidance for teachers.

The materials reviewed for Kindergarten meet the criteria for materials to regularly provide all students, including those who read, write, speak, or listen below grade level with extensive opportunities for reteaching to meet or exceed grade-level standards.

The materials provide opportunities for small group reteaching through Additional Support activities, which are included in every Skills lesson. The materials provide teachers with guidance for scaffolding and adapting lessons and activities to support students who read, write, speak, or listen below grade level.

Materials provide opportunities for small group reteaching. Examples include:

• In Skills 1, Lesson 13, the teacher works with small groups for the first time. One of the groups consists of students needing additional support and close monitoring. The Teacher Guide explains that the groups are meant to be fluid, and teachers should use information from assessments and observations to decide on the groups.
• In Skills 5, Lesson 2, students are broken into small groups to work on the sound spelling of /l/. Students in Group 1 need additional support.
• In Skills 6, Lesson 8, the Additional Support activity is a small group where students reread the text, “Kit’s Mom” in silly voices, using picture cards from Activity Page TR 5.2.
• In Skills 10, Lesson 1, students blend and segment two-syllable words. In the Additional Supports, it suggests that a small group of students, who need additional help, are given a small object and told they will break words into their smallest parts using the objects when trying to segment the words.

Materials provide guidance to teachers for scaffolding and adapting lessons and activities to support students who read, write, speak, or listen below grade level in extensive opportunities to learn foundational skills at the grade-level standards. Examples include:

• In Skills 3, Lesson 2, Additional Support is provided to help students hear the initial sound in words. The Support tells the teacher that if students have difficulty hearing the /a/ sound in the word, to say the word by segmenting it. For example, to say ad as /a/.../d/ first and then repeating it as ad.
• In Skills 5, Lesson 2, students engage in a Warm-up activity where students say each sound while making a corresponding gesture. According to the program, for students who need additional support, “Adopt other gestures for the sounds if you find them more effective.”
• In Skills 8, Lesson 1, in the Additional Support section, there is information on how to help students with letters and sounds. Students are given larger letter cards for a spelling that has one sound. The teacher says a sound, and the student with the Large Letter Card stands up and gives the letter name. Students print the spelling on paper, saying the sound as they write.

The materials reviewed for Kindergarten meet the criteria for materials to regularly provide extensions and/or more advanced opportunities for students who read, write, speak, or listen above grade level.

Materials provide multiple opportunities through the Challenge sidebars and the Pausing Point opportunities to provide extension opportunities for students who read, write, speak, or listen above grade level. Additional readers are included during the Pausing Points for extension opportunities for applying phonics skills and for practicing fluency. Enrichment opportunities are not just additional assignments and instead, are variants in what other students are doing.

Materials provide multiple opportunities for advanced students to investigate grade-level foundational skills at a greater depth. Examples include:

• In the K-2 Program Guide, Differentiation, it notes, “Pausing Point days include several days’ worth of enrichment and remediation instruction.”
• In the K-2 Program Guide, Student Enrichment, it notes, “CKLA provides multiple opportunities for challenge and enrichment, including: Challenge Sidebars.” These provide stretching questions and activities throughout the lesson.
• In Skills 3 Lesson 1, the Challenge Sidebar provides the following extension guidance, “For students who can readily identify words beginning with /m/, ask them to try to identify words that end with /m/.”
• In Skills 5, Lesson 5, students engage in a sorting routine. For students who do this with ease, materials suggest that the students do a speed sort where they race against themselves to get their best time.
• In Skills 6, Lesson 11, in a Stand up for Rhymes activity, students stand up if they hear a pair of rhyming words. In a Challenge Sidebar, students are asked to provide additional rhyming words.
• In Skills 7, Lesson 12, the Challenge Sidebar provides the following extension guidance, “Ask students to provide a rhyming word for each blended word.”
• In Skills 8, Lesson 4, in a Making Phrases with Tricky Words activity, in a Challenge Sidebar, students are invited to add words orally to turn the phrases created in the activity into sentences.

There are no instances of advanced students simply doing more than their classmates. Opportunities for advanced students were noted during whole group or small group time. Students were not assigned to do more than their classmates, rather a variance of an activity. For most of the activities, the advanced students would work on their own or with a partner. Students needing remediation work with the teacher. Throughout the Teacher’s Guide, there is support for English Language Learners, which is found in sidebars throughout lessons.