Express Steps
2022

Express Steps

Publisher
Express Readers
Subject
ELA
Grades
K-2
Report Release
06/07/2024
Review Tool Version
v2.0
Format
Supplemental: Foundational Skills Only

EdReports reviews of foundational skills supplements determine if a program meets, partially meets, or does not meet expectations for alignment to research-based practices and college and career ready standards. This rating encompasses all grades covered in the program.

Alignment (Gateway 1)
Partially Meets Expectations

Materials must meet expectations for standards alignment in order to be reviewed for usability. This rating encompasses all grades covered in the program.

Usability (Gateway 2)
NE = Not Eligible. Product did not meet the threshold for review.
Not Eligible
Key areas of interest

This score is the sum of all points available for all foundational skills components across all grades covered in the program.

The maximum available points depends on the review tool used and the number of grades covered.

Foundational Skills
142/198

This score represents an average across grade levels reviewed for: integrated reading, writing, speaking, listening, and language, and promotion of mastery of grade-level standards by the end of the year.

Building Knowledge
NC = Not Claimed. The publisher does not claim that this component is addressed in the materials.
NC
Our Review Process

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Report for 1st Grade

Alignment Summary

The materials for Grade 1 partially meet the expectations for alignment to research-based practices and standards for foundational skills instruction. 

The materials include a scope and sequence hyperlinked to the lessons within the Teacher Planner. On the Teacher’s Platform, Steps 1-5, Phonological Awareness, there is a Phonological/Phonemic Awareness Map containing a phonological awareness scope and sequence for the Daily Dos. The Phonemic Awareness Map provides a breakdown of each phonological/phonemic awareness skill during the allotted weeks of instruction. Materials do not contain a clear, evidence-based explanation for the expected sequence of phonemic awareness skills. The materials do not contain a phonemic awareness sequence of instruction and practice related to the phonics scope and sequence, and phonemic awareness skills do not align consistently with the phonics focus for the week. While there is no complete sequence of phonemic awareness tied to the phonics scope and sequence, phonics lessons generally begin with phoneme instruction and link the grapheme. The materials include limited systematic and explicit instruction in phonemic awareness. Most lessons include some instruction but primarily student practice with limited explicit instruction. Materials include daily opportunities for students to practice phonological awareness skills through Daily Dos activities, not specifically phonemic awareness. The materials provide articulation instruction for phonemes. The materials provide regular and systematic assessment opportunities over the course of the year in phonemic awareness, providing check-ups, formal assessments, and sound fluency assessments. A variety of assessments are provided to assess students’ mastery of phonemic awareness skills.

The materials do not contain elements of instruction that are based on the three-cueing system for teaching decoding. Materials provide a scope and sequence of phonics skills; however, an evidence-based explanation for the order of the phonics sequence is absent. Materials contain opportunities for systematic teaching of phonics; however, the lessons do not consistently provide explicit instruction. Materials do not include instruction in inflectional endings. Materials include blending and segmenting, but routines are inconsistent or defined for the teacher. The use of dictation is inconsistent across materials and there is no consistent routine explicitly modeled. Materials provide guidance in the modification section of the lesson plan but do not provide guidance for corrective feedback. Materials provide students with frequent and consistent opportunities to decode and encode phonetically spelled words. The materials include spelling lists aligned to the scope and sequence and the focus for the week. Materials provide decodable texts aligned to the phonics focus of each week of instruction. Materials include formal assessments, Check-Ups, and Practice Pages for teachers to use in collecting ongoing data about students’ progress in phonics. Teachers are provided with information on how to analyze the results of assessments; however, limited information is provided to teachers to respond with follow-up phonics instruction or instructional adjustments to address phonics skills.

The materials include systematic and explicit instruction of high-frequency words within the SOS lessons, including Sticky Words and See-Me-Say-Me words. Lessons include teacher modeling of the spelling and reading of high-frequency words, which includes connecting phonemes to graphemes. The materials include student practice for identifying and reading high-frequency words in isolation and context; however, students have limited opportunities to write high-frequency words in tasks to promote automaticity and fluency. The materials include limited explicit instruction in syllable types and instruction in dividing multisyllabic words. There are also missed opportunities for explicit instruction in morpheme analysis to decode unknown words. The materials have regular and systematic assessment opportunities over the course of the year to demonstrate students’ progress toward mastery and independence of word recognition but not word analysis. Most of the opportunities assess high-frequency words, regular and irregularly spelled words, while there are few opportunities to assess word analysis skills of decodable words. 

The materials include frequent opportunities for explicit, systematic instruction in automaticity and accuracy using phonics books and decodable texts. Students have multiple practice opportunities for reading fluency through a variety of reading activities and settings in centers, such as reading to a teacher, to a book buddy (stuffed animal), to a classmate, or independently in centers. The materials provide limited guidance for corrective feedback. Materials do not include formal assessments and there are limited informal assessment opportunities provided in centers within the materials to assess students’ reading fluency. Materials do not provide the teacher and students with information about students' current skills/level of understanding of oral reading fluency.

1st Grade
Alignment (Gateway 1)
Partially Meets Expectations
Usability (Gateway 2)
Not Rated
Overview of Gateway 1

Alignment to Research-Based Practices and Standards for Foundation Skills Instruction

Criterion 1.1: Phonemic Awareness

10/16

Materials emphasize explicit, systematic instruction of research-based and/or evidence-based phonemic awareness.

The materials include a scope and sequence hyperlinked to the lessons within the Teacher Planner. On the Teacher’s Platform, Steps 1-5, Phonological Awareness, there is a Phonological/Phonemic Awareness Map containing a phonological awareness scope and sequence for the Daily Dos. The Phonemic Awareness Map provides a breakdown of each phonological/phonemic awareness skill during the allotted weeks of instruction. Materials do not contain a clear, evidence-based explanation for the expected sequence of phonemic awareness skills. The materials do not contain a phonemic awareness sequence of instruction and practice related to the phonics scope and sequence, and phonemic awareness skills do not align consistently with the phonics focus for the week. While there is no complete sequence of phonemic awareness tied to the phonics scope and sequence, phonics lessons generally begin with phoneme instruction and link the grapheme. The materials include limited systematic and explicit instruction in phonemic awareness. Most lessons include some instruction but primarily student practice with limited explicit instruction. Materials include daily opportunities for students to practice phonological awareness skills through Daily Dos activities, not specifically phonemic awareness. The materials provide articulation instruction for phonemes. The materials provide regular and systematic assessment opportunities over the course of the year in phonemic awareness, providing check-ups, formal assessments, and sound fluency assessments. A variety of assessments are provided to assess students’ mastery of phonemic awareness skills.

Indicator 1C
02/04

Scope and sequence clearly delineate the sequence in which phonemic awareness skills are to be taught, with a clear, evidence-based explanation for the expected hierarchy of phonemic awareness competence.

The materials provide a scope and sequence hyperlinked to the lessons within the Teacher Planner. The scope and sequence provides the sequence of phonological/phonemic awareness instruction. On the Teacher’s Platform, Steps 1-5, Phonological Awareness, there is a Phonological/Phonemic Awareness Map which also contains a phonological awareness scope and sequence for the Daily Dos. The Phonemic Awareness Map provides a breakdown of each phonological/phonemic awareness skill during the allotted weeks of instruction. Materials do not contain a clear, evidence-based explanation for the expected sequence of phonemic awareness skills.

The materials do not contain a phonemic awareness sequence of instruction and practice related to the phonics scope and sequence, and phonemic awareness skills do not align consistently with the phonics focus for the week. While there is no complete sequence of phonemic awareness tied to the phonics scope and sequence, phonics lessons generally begin with phoneme instruction and link the grapheme. 

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

  • On the Express Readers Website, Resources/Professional Development, under the heading Reading Reinforcement, it states, “Overview of current research on phonics, phonemic awareness, and effective reading practices, as well as realistic approaches to classroom application.” However, there is no link to access this research, and the webpage does not offer any other links or information to find research.

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 the Blue Teacher Planner, pages 7-12, a chart lists the weekly focus for each skill (auditory discrimination, language awareness, rhyming, letters, segmenting, adding, deleting, substitution, or blending), and the activities that address each skill. 

    • Segmenting:

      • Weeks 1-6 - 4-5 phoneme words

      • Weeks 7-9 - words with consonant digraphs

      • Weeks 10-12 - syllables, words with consonant digraphs

      • Weeks 13-16 - 4-5 phoneme words (mixed)

    • Adding: 

      • Weeks 1-3 - final phonemes

      • Weeks 4-6 - mixed blends

      • Weeks 7-9 - initial phonemes

      • Weeks 10-12 - onset

      • Weeks 13-16 - mixed blends

    • Blending:

      • Weeks 1-3 - 4-5 phoneme words (blends l, s, r)

      • Weeks 4-6 - 4-5 phoneme words

      • Weeks 7-12 - words with consonant digraphs

      • Weeks 13-16 - 4-5 phoneme words

    • Deleting:

      • Weeks 1-3 - 2nd letter of a beginning blend

      • Weeks 4-6 - mixed positions

      • Weeks 7-9 - final phonemes

      • Weeks 10-12 - initial phonemes

      • Weeks 13-16 - mixed positions

    • Substitution: 

      • Weeks 1-3 - final phonemes

      • Weeks 4-6 - rimes

      • Weeks 7-9 - initial or final phonemes

      • Weeks 10-12 - medial vowel sound

      • Weeks 13-16 - 2nd letter of a blend

  • On the Teacher’s Platform, Steps 1-5, Phonological Awareness, there are Phonological/Phonemic Awareness Maps available to see the breakdown of each phonological/phonemic awareness skill, the weeks the skill is taught, and the specific activities that target that skill. For example, in the Blue Teacher Planner, Step 2, auditory discrimination is taught in all weeks of the curriculum. In Weeks 7-9, auditory discrimination is taught with consonant digraphs with the activities: Can You Hear It?, and Different or the Same? In Weeks 10-12, auditory discrimination is taught with vowel sounds, and consonant digraphs with the activities: Long or Short?, and Different or the Same?

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:

  • Instruction in language awareness, rhyming, auditory discrimination, segmenting, blending, adding, deleting, letters, and substituting all begin in Week 1 of the program.  

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

  • In the Blue Teacher Planner, Week 9, Day 136, the focus for the week is consonant digraphs ch, sh, th. The phonemic awareness instruction focuses on the following skills which match Weeks 10, 11, and 12 of Step 3 phonics scope and sequence containing digraphs ch, sh and th: 

    • Adding: adding the beginning digraphs ch, sh, and th to the rimes -ip, -op, -at and -in to create the words ship, chip, shop, chop, that, chat, thin, shin, and chin.

    • Substituting: substituting ch or tch with sh to create the words hush, mush, cash, marsh, hash, dish, mash, swish, wash, wish, and crush. 

    • Blending: blending phonemes together to create the words path, tooth, third, wreath, moth, thorn, sloth, and think.

Indicator 1D
02/04

Materials include systematic and explicit instruction in phonemic awareness with repeated teacher modeling.

Materials include limited systematic and explicit instruction in phonemic awareness. The majority of lessons include some instruction but primarily include student practice with limited explicit instruction. Some activities take place in Gray Space Activities, which are not all guaranteed to be taught. Materials do not include corrective feedback.

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

  • Distinguish long from short vowel sounds in spoken single-syllable words.

    • In the Orange Teacher Planner, Week 1, Days 176-180, the teacher reminds students that long vowels say their own name. The teacher shows students two motions: holding hands out wide to the side to depict “loooooong” and hands clapped and held together to show “short.” The teacher holds up a picture card and students say the word out loud with the teacher. Students then do the motion for long or short depending on what they think the medial sound is. The teacher uses 5-10 words. 

    • In the Orange Teacher Planner, Week 1, Days 176-180, the teacher introduces long a sound. The teacher uses pictures card to show students and if the students hear the long a sound, they hold up their Wonder Letter Card A. This activity is repeated in other days for all long vowels.  

  • Orally produce single-syllable words by blending sounds (phonemes), including consonant blends.

    • In the Blue Teacher Planner, Gray Space Activities, Week 3, Step 2, Day 106, the teacher tells students we’re going to say a word in parts to blend the sounds together to make a word. The teacher says, flat pausing between each phoneme. 

    • In the Blue Teacher Planner, Daily Dos, Week 4, Day 112, in the activity, Stir Sounds. The teacher gives students four to five sounds to blend together into words. The teacher guides students in blending sounds to produce the word sled, and then students blend sounds on their own to produce the words stuck, clip, dent, place, quilt, help, cream, spout.

    • In the Blue Teacher Planner, Daily Dos, Week 14, Day 66, students complete Bounce and Blend. The teacher says the phonemes and students blend the phonemes together. The words for the activity on this day include words with beginning and ending blends: vest, stem, truck, plum.

  • Isolate and pronounce initial, medial vowel, and final sounds (phonemes) in spoken single-syllable words.

    • In the Blue Teacher Planner, Daily Dos, Week 2, Days 101-105, students play Stomp it Out. Students stomp the sounds in the following words: wind /w/-/i/-/n/-/d/, bench /b/-/e/-/n/-/ch/, kitten /k/-/i/-/t/-/e/-/n/, planet /p/-/l/-/a/-/n/-/e/-/t/, donut /d/-/O/-/n/-/u/-/t/, torch /t/-/or/-/ch/, next /n/-/e/-/k/-/s/-/t/, wash /w/-/o/-/sh/, write /r/-/I/-/t/, swim /s/-/w/-/i/-/m/ 

  • Segment spoken single-syllable words into their complete sequence of individual sounds (phonemes).

    • In the Blue Teacher Planner, Week 8, Day 134, the teacher models the first word with extreme exaggeration by saying the word one time, then saying the word in a verbally segmented way, and finally saying each sound while stomping, leaving one second between each stomp to show the segmentation. Words used in the activity are shark, shadow, thigh, third, trash, bench, couch, brunch, radish, channel, thunder, and that. 

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

  • In the Blue Teacher Planner, Week 12, Day 151, the students participate in the activity Long or Short. The teacher provides a list of words with mixed short and long vowel words in the medial position. The teacher says a word, enunciating and slightly elongating the medial vowel sound. Students either hold their arms out wide (for a long vowel sound) or put their hands together about an inch apart (for a short vowel sound). By doing one of the above motions, students are signifying whether they heard a long vowel or a short vowel in the medial position.

  • In the  Orange Teacher Planner, Week 1, Days 176-180, materials include lists of long vowel words for each vowel sound for teachers to use. 

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

  • No evidence found.

Indicator 1E
02/04

Materials include daily, brief lessons in phonemic awareness.

Materials include daily opportunities for students to practice phonological awareness skills through Daily Dos activities; not specifically phonemic awareness. The materials provide some articulation instruction for phonemes. The materials do not consistently provide evidence of alignment between the phonemic awareness instruction and skills in phonics instruction.

Daily phonemic awareness instruction does not consistently correlate to the phonics portion of the lesson (phoneme-grapheme correspondence). Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • In the Blue Teacher Planner, Week 1, Days 96-100, the phonics focus is on blends. The Daily Dos for phonemic awareness includes the Blends Buckets activity using words with br and bl blends; Frog Bingo uses blends sp, bl, tr, gr, pl, cr, sl, sk, cl, st, pr, dr, fl, gl, fr, br; Chop Chop segments onset and rime of blends (tr, st, br, cr, pl); 

  • In the Blue Teacher Planner, Week 10, Days 141,  the phonics focus is on consonant digraphs (ch, sh, th, -tch).  The Daily Dos for phonemic awareness include the following activities with the same focus:  fish bingo (ch, th, sh); blending (ch, sh), different or the same? Segmenting, and deleting, blending. 

Materials include opportunities for students to practice connecting sounds to letters. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • In the Blue Teacher Planner, Week 2, Days 101-105, Mini Lesson: Beginning Blend Coloring Sheet, students identify the bl- blend at the top of the paper. Students look at each picture, say the word, and color/circle each picture that begins with the bl blend. Students write the blend next to each picture with that blend. 

  • In the Blue Teacher Planner, Week 9, Days 136-140, students say the name of a picture, identify the digraph in the word, and place the picture card under the appropriate heading (ch/tch, th, sh).  If the picture ends with the sound /ch/, students place the picture by the index card with the “tch” and “ch.”

Materials include directions to the teacher for demonstrating how to pronounce some phonemes (articulation/mouth formation). Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • In the Blue Teacher Planner, Week 7, Days 126-130, the teacher explains that the ch digraph is a “forceful sound - pushing air out of their mouth with force - sounds like the sound that a train makes.”  Teachers model saying “ch-ch-ch- (choo choo) and observe and listen for the correct sound from students. 

  • In the Blue Teacher Planner, Week 10, Days 141-145, the teacher explains that th makes two sounds.  The materials state “The voiced sound of “th” creates a vibration in your throat and your tongue is a bit further back (not completely sticking beyond your front teeth).  This voiced /th/ can be found in words such as breathe, brother, this, and then.  The unvoiced sound does not make a vibration.  The tongue protrudes past the front teeth and only air escapes from the mouth. This unvoiced /th/ can be heard in words such as thumb, think, through, and moth.”

Indicator 1F
04/04

Materials regularly and systematically offer assessment opportunities that measure student progress of phonemic awareness (as indicated by the program scope and sequence).

Materials provide regular and systematic assessment opportunities over the course of the year in phonemic awareness, providing check-ups, formal assessments, and sound fluency assessments. There are a variety of assessments provided that assess students’ mastery of phonemic awareness skills such as onset, medial, and final word sounds, phoneme segmentation, phoneme manipulation (adding, deleting, or substituting phonemes), encoding, and distinguishing between long and short vowel sounds. Tracking forms are provided to teachers to help with tracking ongoing data about students’ progress in phonemic awareness. The Sound Fluency assessments provide a continuum of phonemic awareness skills providing teachers with 6 levels of assessments. Level 1 starts with beginning sounds, and Level 6 progresses to beginning, final, and medial sounds. Response to Assessment materials provide teachers with suggestions to progress students toward mastery in phonemic awareness skills.  Assessment materials provide teachers with information on students’ current skill levels and instructional strategies for reteaching students who have not mastered skills. 

Materials 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:

  • On the Express Readers website, Teacher’s Platform, Assessment Alignment provides a document that lists the phonemic awareness skills and assessments for the skills.  The program uses Daily Dos (informal observations), Check-Ups (progress monitoring), formal assessments, and a variety of activities to assess the students’ phonemic awareness progress.  

  • On the Express Readers website, Teacher’s Platform, an Assessment Schedule provides an outline for assessments for the Blue Teacher Planner including: 

    • Week 1: Formal Assessment - sound fluency

    • Week 2: Check Up #7 - auditory discrimination (medial, long or short vowels, blending (4 phonemes); rhyming (Production/recognition), substituting spoken sounds (final phonemes)

    • Week 5: Check Up #8 - auditory discrimination (medial/long or short vowel sounds); blending (4-5 phonemes); rhyming (production/recognition); phonics chunks (blends recognition)

    • Week 7: Formal Assessment - sound fluency

    • Week 8: Check Up #9 - auditory discrimination (consonant digraphs, ch); blending (3-4 phonemes); rhyming (production/recognition), adding (consonant digraphs)

    • Week 10: Check up #10 - auditory discrimination (consonant digraphs, sh), blending (3-4 phonemes); phonics chunks (consonant digraphs and blends)

    • Week 11: Formal Assessment - phonics, letters, blending

    • Week 13: Check Up #11 - auditory discrimination (medial, long or short vowel sounds); blending (3-5 phonemes, digraphs, blends);phonics chunks (digraphs/blends)

    • Week 14: Formal Assessment - sound fluency

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

  • In the Blue Teacher Planner, Week 2, Days 101-105, Check Up #7 includes the following possible meanings for insufficient scores:

    • Possible meanings of an insufficient score for #1-6 (3-6 incorrect): students are not hearing/discriminating and isolating medial (vowel) sounds to hear differences; Students re not sufficiently versed in the understanding of a long vowel sound versus a short vowel sound

    • Possible meanings of an insufficient score for #7-10 (2-4 incorrect): students re not able to auditorily blend segmented sounds in words with blends

    • Possible meaning of an insufficient score for #11-12 (1-2 incorrect): Students are not identifying the sound of the rime in rhyming and non-rhyming words to identify other words consisting of that time

    • Possible meaning of an insufficient score for #13-16 (2-4 incorrect): Students are not able to isolate a final phoneme and substitute that sound for a new sound.

  • In the Blue Teacher Planner, Week 7, Days 126-130, Sound Fluency Level 4 Assessment includes the following possible meanings for insufficient scores:

    • Score 1-10:  students need to be specifically taught how to listen for sounds in set places in words (beginning, medial, ending).  This students should be reassessed using Level 4 after a period of teaching and practice

    • Score 11-16: students need teacher support with more review and practice of hearing and identifying sounds in spoken words and a possible re-assessment using Level 4

    • Scores 17-20: Considered a passing score - students can hear and discriminate sounds within words (vowels included)

Materials 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 Blue Teacher Planner, Week 8, Days 131-135, Check Up 9 instructs teachers on how to reteach the skills to those students who do not adequately perform on the assessment.  Guidance states:

    • For practice toward mastery in auditory discrimination (consonant digraphs, ch): practice listening skills and auditory directions; participation in “Can You Hear It?” for “ch” frequently.  

    • For practice towards mastery in blending phonemes: participate in “Bounce and Blend” frequently

    • For practice toward mastery in rhyming recognition and production: practice with rhyming repetition and coming up with words that rhyme; listen to more read aloud books with rhymes; anticipate the rhymes; participate in the “Rhyme Ride” and/or “Rhyming Rhythm” frequently; participate in “Wrong Rhyme.”

    • For practice toward mastery in adding sounds (consonant digraphs); participate in “Grow a Word” frequently

  • In the Blue Teacher Planner, Week 14, Days 161-165, Sound Fluency Assessment - Level 5 instructs teachers on how to reteach the skills to those students who do not adequately perform on the assessment.  Guidance states: utilize activities from the Daily Dos that correlate to the sound positions in words that are causing students difficulty; use Couple Card pictures. Flip a picture, say the word for the picture, and ask for the beginning, ending, or medial sound of that word; Play Sort bySound to focus on the same sound on the beginning, ending, or medial position of multiple words. 

  • On the Express Readers website, Suggested Step Guidelines, Express Readers’ Online Assessment, states that students who are in the developing category will need support from the teacher to determine which patterns they are struggling with for students who are developing. The teacher should use the Student Error Report to support what they need.

Criterion 1.2: Phonics (Decoding and Encoding)

26/32

Materials emphasize explicit, systematic instruction of research-based and/or evidence-based phonics.

The materials do not contain elements of instruction that are based on the three-cueing system for teaching decoding. Materials provide a scope and sequence of phonics skills; however, an evidence-based explanation for the order of the phonics sequence is absent. Materials provide reasonable pacing of phonics instruction, which includes multiple lessons for newly taught phonics skills and sufficient student practice to work towards automaticity. Materials contain opportunities for systematic teaching of phonics; however, the lessons do not consistently provide explicit instruction. Materials do not include instruction in inflectional endings. Materials include blending and segmenting, but routines are inconsistent or defined for the teacher. The use of dictation is inconsistent across materials and there is no consistent routine explicitly modeled. Materials provide guidance in the modification section of the lesson plan but do not provide guidance for corrective feedback. Materials provide students with frequent and consistent opportunities to decode and encode phonetically spelled words in whole group lessons using Phonics Readers, Wonder Mats, and Express Spelling lessons. Encoding practice includes writing words from spelling lists, writing words in sound boxes, as well as students writing words students build in sentences. The materials include spelling lists aligned to the scope and sequence and the focus for the week. Materials provide decodable texts aligned to the phonics focus of each week of instruction. The phonics skills align with the general scope and sequence provided for teachers to reference during planning or instruction. Daily lesson plans provide instructional guidance each week, including repeated readings until students have acquired expected grade-level phonics skills. Materials include formal assessments, Check-Ups, and Practice Pages for teachers to use in collecting ongoing data about students’ progress in phonics. Teachers are provided with information on how to analyze the results of assessments; however, limited information is provided to teachers to respond with follow-up phonics instruction or instructional adjustments to address phonics skills.

Indicator 1G
02/04

Scope and sequence clearly delineate an intentional sequence in which phonics skills are to be taught, with a clear evidence-based explanation for the order of the sequence.

The materials provide a scope and sequence of phonics skills; however, there is an absence of an evidence-based explanation for the order of the phonics sequence. There are high utility patterns of phonics instruction for students. 

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

  • No evidence found.

Materials clearly delineate a scope and sequence with a cohesive, intentional sequence of phonics instruction, from simpler to more complex skills, and practice to build toward the application of skills. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • In the Blue Teacher Planner, Step 3, outlines the scope and sequence as follows:

    • Week 10, Days 141-145, consonant digraphs ch, sh, th, and -tch

    • Week 11, Days 146-150, consonant digraphs ch, sh, th, and -tch

    • Week 12, Days 151-155, consonant digraphs ch, sh, th, and -tch

    • Week 13, Days 156-160, -ng and -nk

    • Week 14, Days 161 - 165, -ng, and -nk

    • Week 15, Days 166-170, multisyllabic 

    • Week 16, Days 171 - 175, multisyllabic 

  • In the Blue Teacher Planner, Step 4, outlines the scope and sequence as follows: 

    • Week 1, Days 176-180, long vowel sounds /A/, /E/, /I/

    • Week 2, Days 181-185, long vowel sounds /O/, /U/

    • Week 3, Days 186-190, sneaky “e”, long /A/, a_e

    • Week 4, Days 191-195, sneaky “e”, long /A/, a_e

    • Week 5, Days 196-200, sneaky “e”, long /O/, o_e

    • Week 6, Days 201 - 205, sneaky “e”, long /I/, i_e

    • Week 7, Days 206 - 210, sneaky “e”, soft “c”/s/

    • Week 8, Days 211 - 215, sneaky “e”, long /U/, u_e, ue

    • Week 9, Days 216 - 220, sneaky “e”

    • Week 10, 221 - 225,  sneaky “e”

  • In the Orange Teacher Planner, Step 5, outlines the scope and sequence as follows: 

    • Week 11, Days 226 - 230, vowel teams, ee

    • Week 12, Days 231 - 235, vowel teams, ea

    • Week 13, Days 236 - 240, vowel teams, ee, ea

    • Week 14, Days 241 - 245, vowel teams, ai

    • Week 15, Days 246 - 250, vowel teams

    • Week 16, Days 251 - 255, vowel teams oa

    • Week 17, Days 256 - 260, vowel teams oa, ui

    • Week 18, Days 261 - 265, vowels

Phonics instruction is based in high utility patterns and/or common phonics generalizations. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • In the Blue Teacher Planner, Week 8, Days 131-135, and Week 9, Days 136-140, Summary Page, indicates the sequence for the weeks include consonant digraphs ch, sh, th.

  • In the Blue Teacher Planner, Week 10, Days 141-145, the teacher reminds students that ch is used when there is not another letter after a short vowel in most words.  

  • In the Blue Teacher Planner, Week 13, Days 156-160 includes students learning the ng digraph. 

  • In the Orange Teacher Planner,  Week 12, Days 231 - 235, the teacher reviews the rules for using sneaky e to make a long vowel sound. 

Indicator 1H
04/04

Materials are absent of the three-cueing system.

The materials do not contain elements of instruction that are based on the three-cueing system for teaching decoding.

Indicator 1I
04/04

Materials, questions, and tasks provide reasonable pacing where phonics (decoding and encoding) skills are taught one at a time and allot time where phonics skills are practiced to automaticity, with cumulative review.

The materials provide reasonable pacing of phonics instruction, which includes multiple lessons for newly taught phonics skills and sufficient student practice to work towards automaticity. Each skill is practiced for a week. and lessons include intentional review of previously taught phonics. There is reasonable pacing of the skills where each skill is taught throughout the week in different whole groups, small groups, mini - lessons, and centers. The pacing provides an opportunity for students to practice the focus phonics skill in Daily Dos, small group, and in centers. 

Materials include reasonable pacing of newly taught phonics skills. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • In the Blue Teacher Planner, Week 3, Days 106-110, materials include  mini-lessons to review fl, fr, gl, and gr blends and the teacher chooses an additional 2-4 blends to introduce during whole group lessons.

  • In the Blue Teacher Planner, Step 2, Weeks 4, 5 and 6, Days 111-125, students practice blends during 15-25 minute whole group instruction, through spelling, and in a decodable text.

  • In the Blue Teacher Planner, Week 7, Days 126-130, materials introduce digraphs ch, and sh. The digraphs are introduced on day one and practiced and reviewed on all subsequent days of the weekly instruction during the whole-class lesson. 

  • In the Blue Teacher Planner, Weeks 8 and 9, Days, materials include instruction for the sounds ch, sh and th, students practice sound sorts during the whole class lessons as well as practice reading phonics books. 

The lesson plan design allots time to include sufficient student practice to work towards automaticity. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • In the Blue Teacher Planner, Week 3, Days 106-110, students practice phonics sounds in the whole group for 25 - 30 minutes.

  • In the Blue Teacher Planner, Week 5, Days 116-120, students work on the mini lesson practicing blend recognition for 15 - 20 minutes. Students work on blends for four weeks in a row during the whole group, and mini - lessons throughout the week. 

  • In the Blue Teacher Planner, Week 7, Days 126-130, students sort ch and sh by sound for 10-15 minutes during the mini-lesson, additional practice for 15-25 minutes during a whole class lesson, as well as teacher-led practice of sounds with practice pages. 

  • In the Blue Teacher Planner, Week 8, Days 131-135, students sort ch, sh, and th picture cards during a 10-15 minute mini-lesson, sort picture cards for th, and sh during a 15-20 minute whole class lesson, and practice building and spelling sh words during an additional 15-25 minute whole class lesson.

  • In the Blue Teacher Planner, Week 9, Days 136-140, students sort ch, tch, sh, and th picture cards during 10-15 minute mini-lesson, cut and paste th, and ch digraphs next to associated pictures during a 15-20 minute whole class lesson, and practice decoding and building th words during an additional 15-25 minute whole class lesson. 

  • In the Blue Teacher Planner, Weeks 10, 11 and 12, Days 141-155, students practice ch, sh, th, and tch for a total of three weeks, students sort by sound during the mini-lesson, and in the 15-25 minute whole class lesson students practice application in phonics books, spelling and in centers/small group by sorting, cutting and pasting. 

Materials contain distributed, cumulative, and interleaved opportunities for students to practice and  review  previously learned phonics skills. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • In the Blue Teacher Planner, Weeks 3 and 4, review sneaky e long a spelled a_e

  • In the Blue Teacher Planner, Week 7, Days 126-130, students work on digraphs ch and sh. Then on Week 8, Days 131 - 135, students work on review of ch, and sh. Then they add on th. Week 9, Days 136-140, students work on reviewing consonant digraphs, ch, sh and th.

  • In the Blue Teacher Planner, Week 10, Days 141-145, students practice applying previously taught knowledge of spelling in sentences, words, reading, putting words in alphabetical order, and word hunts.

  • In the Blue Teacher Planner, Decodable Book Set, a set of six decodable books build upon previously taught blends. The first decodable introduced includes -ck, sw-, gl-, and -st blends. The last decodable introduced contains blends from the first decodable as well as an additional nine blends.

  • In the Orange Teacher Planner, students on Week 1, Days 176-180 are introduced to long vowel a. In Week 3, Days 186-190, students review long vowel a.

Indicator 1J
02/04

Materials include systematic and explicit phonics instruction with repeated teacher modeling.

The materials contain opportunities for systematic teaching of phonics; however, the lessons do not consistently provide explicit instruction. Materials include some teacher modeling of skills prior to student practice, but the majority of lessons are focused on student practice. Materials do not include instruction in inflectional endings. Materials include blending and segmenting, but routines are not consistent or defined for the teacher. The use of dictation is inconsistent across materials and there is not a consistent routine explicitly modeled. Materials provide guidance in the modification section of the lesson plan but do not provide guidance for corrective feedback.  

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

  • Know the spelling-sound correspondences for common consonant digraphs.

    • In the Blue Teacher Planner, Week 7, Days 126-130, the teacher states digraphs are a combination of consonant letters and introduces the /ch/ sound and models the sound. The teacher repeats for the /sh/sound. 

    • In the Blue Teacher Planner, Week 10, Days 141-145, the teacher explains that /ch/ and /tch/ are forceful sounds that are produced by forcefully pushing air out of their mouth and making the sound of a train. The teacher then explains ch and tch are digraphs that spell the same sound.

    • In the Blue Teacher Planner, Week 11, Days 146 - 150, the teacher writes or displays the words, then and them. Teachers point to the phonics chunk th, which is a consonant digraph. The teacher reminds the students that the sound spelled is /th/

    • In the Blue Teacher Planner, Week 14, Days 161 - 165, the teacher pretends one of their hands says /n/ and the other says /g/,  the teacher smash their fists together creating the /ng/ sound. 

  • Decode regularly spelled one-syllable words.

    • In the Blue Teacher Planner, Week 2, Days 101 - 105, teachers decide what word to build on their mat using st, nd, nt, and sk. After the teacher creates the word on their mat, they put the blender cards on their word mat. The first word the teacher builds is band.

    • In the Blue Teacher Planner, Week 4, Days 111 - 115, the teacher models building words by changing one sound. The words are single syllables including: clock, cluck, pluck and track. 

  • Know final -e and common vowel team conventions for representing long vowel sounds.

    • In the Orange Teacher Planner,Week 3, Days 186-190, the teacher models segmenting, and blending each sound. The teacher asks what causes the letter a to make the long a sound. The teacher reminds students of the sneaky e pattern. 

    • In the Orange Teacher Planner, Week 8, Days 211-215, the teacher explains final e as sneaky e with a focus on u_e spelling pattern. Teachers present short vowel cvc words, adding final -e to the word. Then the teacher asks students to decode the cvc word and then the same word with final -e.  Examples provided for teachers to use include: cut/cute, cub cube, dud/dude, and tub/tube.

    • In the Orange Teacher Planner, Week 12, Days 231-235, the teacher states that when vowels are paired together, “the first one does the talking.” The teacher models building a word and asks students to read the word. Examples provided for teachers to choose from include: bead, read, tea, and beach

  • Use knowledge that every syllable must have a vowel sound to determine the number of syllables in a printed word.

    • In the Blue Teacher Planner, Week 15, Days 166-170, the teacher states, “each syllable in multisyllabic words has a vowel (long or short)”.

    • In the Blue Teacher Planner, Week 16 , Days 171-175, the teacher explains that multi stands for multiple or more than one, and each syllable has a vowel that can be long or short. The teacher explains that et is not a word, and that although it has a vowel it is not a word, explaining this distinction means that it is a multisyllabic word rather than a compound word. 

  • Decode two-syllable words following basic patterns by breaking the words into syllables.

    • In the Blue Teacher Planner, Week 16, Days 171-175, the teacher writes basket, and circles each syllable. The teacher discusses the word, and repeats the process with ladybug, firefly, doghouse, hedgehog, pigpen, and hotdog. 

    • In the Orange Teacher Planner, Week 16, Days 251-255, the teacher reviews definitions of open and closed syllables. 

    • In the Orange Teacher Planner, Week 8, 211 - 215, the teacher reminds students that each syllable in a word is a unit that contains a vowel and models with the word upset.

  • Read words with inflectional endings.

    • No evidence found.

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

  • In the Blue Teacher Planner, Week 7, Days 126 - 130, teachers say a letter sound. The teacher explains that students are going to build words using sounds. The words are CVCC words. The first one the teacher builds  is chin. 

  • In the Blue Teacher Planner, Week 8, Days 131-135, the teacher displays the word much, points out the digraph ch and says the sound. The teacher starts at the beginning of the word modeling blending, and asks students to join them. 

  • In the Orange Teacher Planner, Week 4, Days 191 - 195, students build words by using their word mats. The first word that the teacher has students build is pale.  

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

  • In the Blue Teacher Planner, Week 16, Days 171-174, students listen for phonemes and encode words that are phonetically regular with multiple syllables. Students practice typing each given word on the Spelling List Keyboard. An extension opportunity is included where students can work with a partner to create a sentence containing each word to show meaning. 

  • In the Orange Teacher Planner, Week 12, Days 231-235, students recall and encode words with vowel teams. Students practice typing each word on the list using the Spelling List Keyboard.  

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

  • In the Blue Teacher Planner, Week 2, Days 101-105, the materials include the following corrective feedback to help students identify sticky words: slow the pace of reading while attending to the color-coded guidance, and analyze if the word they read makes sense given the context. 

  • In the Blue Teacher Planner, Week 11, Days 146 - 150, the materials state that teachers should assist and discuss why certain sounds are spelled the way they are or to answer questions and give immediate feedback. 

  • In the Orange Teacher Planner, Week 1, Days 176-180, the materials state that if students say the word wrong, teachers can model the sounds, and ask if they sound correct for the spelling.

  • In the Orange Teacher Planner, Week 16, Days 251-255, materials indicate that the teacher should assist students who read, “incorrectly by repeating the word and orally segmenting the syllables for students to hear.”

Indicator 1K
04/04

Materials include frequent practice opportunities for students to decode and encode words that consist of common and newly-taught sound and spelling patterns.

The materials provide students with frequent and consistent opportunities to decode and encode words with taught phonics patterns in whole group lessons using Phonics Readers, Wonder Mats, and Express Spelling lessons. Encoding practice includes writing words from spelling lists, writing words in sound boxes, as well as students writing words students build in sentences. 

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

  • In the Blue Teacher Planner, Week 1, Days 96-100,  students practice reading sentences including:  It is a crab. The rug has a crack. Pig has a can.

  • In the Blue Teacher Planner, Week 4, Days 111-115, students use the Wonder Words mat to practice identifying CCVCC words. Once the word is determined, students practice blending the whole word. 

  • In the Orange Teacher Planner, Week 5, Days 196-200, students decode and read words with sneaky e.

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

  • In the Blue Teacher Planner, Week 2, Days 101-105, students choose two words with 2-3 letter consonant blends to write from the lesson and draw a picture of the words they chose.  

  • In the Blue Teacher Planner, Week 11, Days 146-150, students practice making words through letter, sound, and letter sounds substitution using digraphs th, sh, tch and writing them on paper.

  • In the Orange Teacher Planner, Week 3 , Days 186-190, students select words with the long a sound, to build on their Wonder mat and write the word on their piece of paper. 

  • In the Orange Teacher Planner, Week 9, Days 216-220, students practice typing words with sneaky e on a paper keyboard and then segment the words by writing the individual sounds into sound boxes. Words include: cane, cake, side, wire, and ripe

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 the Blue Teacher Planner, Week 3, Days 106-110, students read the phonics reader “Frog and His Sled” multiple times to practice decoding blends.

  • In the Orange Teacher Planner, Week 5, Days 196 - 200, students practice decoding short vowel /o/ words on their paper.

  • In the Orange Teacher Planner, Week 11, Days 226-230, students build and decode ee words on a vowel team mat. Teachers call out a word and students build the word. Students practice decoding a list of words including need, keep, feel, and free and practice reading a decodable text “Duck Feels Sick”. 

Materials provide 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 the Blue Teacher Planner, Week 8, Days 131-135, students practice reading “Dog and the Gift” multiple times. Students track sentences and read words according to letter-sound correspondence.

  • In the Orange Teacher Planner, Week 7, Days 206-210, students read the “Snakes Race" multiple times.

Indicator 1L
04/04

Spelling rules and generalizations are taught one at a time at a reasonable pace. Spelling words and generalizations are practiced to automaticity.

The materials include spelling lists aligned to the scope and sequence and to the focus for the week. Materials also include instruction of spelling rules in daily lessons beginning in Week 1 of the Steps 2 and 3 Blue Teacher Planner and beginning in Week 3 of the Steps 4 and 5 Orange Teacher Planner. Materials include opportunities to practice the spelling words during whole-group instruction and center time.

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

  • In the Blue Teacher Planner, Scope and Sequence, the focus for the week is beginning blends, which aligns with the lesson of beginning blend words and the rules that are explained in the Blue Teacher Planner, Week 1, Step 2, Days 96-100. The rule is aligned with the phonics focus. 

  • In the Blue Teacher Planner, Week 6, Days 121-125, the phonics focus is ending blends. During this week, the spelling focus is on List 6, which also contains ending blends: -ff and -ft.

  • In the Blue Teacher Planner, Week 11, the focus for the week is consonant digraphs ch, sh, th, and tch, and Spelling List 5 is comprised of words ending in -sh

  • In the Orange Teacher Planner, Week 3, the focus for the week is Sneaky e, long /ā/, and a_e words, and Express Spelling Step 4, List 1, is comprised of words ending in a_e, emphasizing the long /ā/ sound.

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

  • In the Blue Teacher Planner, Week 7, Days 126-130,  the teacher introduces the digraphs -ch and -sh. Using the digraph -ch, the teacher leads a discussion of the sounds for c /k/ and h /h/, then crashes his/her fists together to illustrate the /ch/ sound. The teacher explains that the /ch/ sound is a forceful sound and teaches the students the /ch/ sound. He/she repeats the instruction for the /sh/ sound.

  • In the Orange Teacher Planner, S Week 5, Days 196-200, the teacher introduces words with long vowels and silent final e. The teacher leads a discussion of how to spell words that follow the CVCe pattern and practices spelling words with students.

  • In the Orange Teacher Planner, Week 9, Days 136-140, the phonics focus is digraphs ch, tch sh, and th. The mini-lesson provides the note that ch and tch sound the same at the end of a word.  The difference is that when there is no other letter between a short vowel and /ch/, the spelling is -tch.  

  • In the Orange Teacher Planner, Week 13, Days 156-160, the phonics focus is on ending digraphs -nk/-ng. The materials include an explanation that a digraph is a combination of letters that create a new phoneme, making it one unit of sound that is different from the original letter sounds. The materials state that -nk does not follow this pattern but does spell a new n sound. In Step 3, Week 14, Days 161-165, the Whole Group lessons for the week include spelling rules for ending digraphs (-ng, -nk). The explanations included in the lesson state the ending digraphs such as -ng have two phonemes.  

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

  • In the Orange Teacher Planner, Week 4, Days 191 - 195, students work on sneaky e with long a, a_e words. Students practice the spellings playing a splat game, and completing spelling activities by typing words with the spelling patterns in them.

  • In the Orange Teacher Planner, Week 8, Days 211-215, the focus for the spelling lessons is long vowel u, and silent final e. Students practice this spelling rule in two whole-class lessons, and on Practice Pages 44-51. 

  • In the Orange Teacher Planner, Step 5, Week 12, Days 151-155, the focus is on consonant digraphs (ch, sh, th, -tch).  Students build words with their Wonder Words Mats.  Some examples of the words are crutch, dish, and dash. There is a practice page (pgs. 95, 97-98) where the students practice encoding words with digraphs and short vowels.  

Indicator 1M
04/04

Materials include decodable texts with phonics aligned to the program’s scope and sequence and opportunities for students to use decodables for multiple readings.

The materials provide decodable texts aligned to the phonics focus of each week of instruction. The phonics skills align with the general scope and sequence provided for teachers to reference during planning or instruction. Students practice phonics skills through the use of decodable short vowel books, and phonics books. Some weeks there may be one text available, while others weeks will have two texts aligned to the focus for the week. The whole group lesson instructs teachers to provide opportunities for students to use decodables for multiple readings, including reading in small groups and with a partner. Each week, detailed lesson plans provide instructional guidance including repeated readings until students have acquired expected grade-level phonics skills.  

Decodable texts contain grade-level phonics skills aligned to the program’s scope and sequence. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • In the Blue Teacher Planner, Week 2, Days 101-105, the focus for the week is ending blends. Students use the decodable book “Duck Has a Nest" to practice reading words with ending blends in context. The phonics skills align to the general scope and sequence provided for teachers to reference.

  • In the Blue Teacher Planner, Week 8, Days 131-135, the focus for the week is consonant digraphs ch, sh, and th. The decodable text for the week is “Dog and The Gift”. The decodable words containing digraphs in this text are: shop, bash, chick, much, rich, cash, chest, dish, crack, and shell.  

  • In the Blue Teacher Planner, Week 15, Days 166-170 the focus for the week is multisyllabic words.  The decodable text is “Cub Has a Picnic”.  The multisyllabic words in the text include: picnic, rocket, planet, and seven.  

  • In the Orange Teacher Planner, Week 3, Days 186-190, the focus for the week is Sneaky e, Long /ā/, and a_e. In the whole class lesson Step 4 Book: “Snake 1 and Snake 2” on pages 62-64 of the Teacher Planner, students use the decodable book “Snake 1 and Snake 2” to practice reading words with the long /a/ sound spelled with a_e. The phonics skills align to the general scope and sequence provided for teachers to reference.

Materials include detailed lesson plans for repeated readings of decodable texts to address acquisition of phonics skills. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • In the Blue Teacher Planner, Week 4, Days 111-115, the focus is on words with blends. Students read the decodable text “Frog Hunts For a Pal". The instructional guidance states that students begin reading with the black and white reader to set them up for success in reading the color version of the phonics book. Students manipulate and highlight parts of the black and white reader to help them identify how to read the text properly. Then students can move to the color book for practice with support. First, the teacher reads the book with the students using choral reading. Teachers help students track the sentences while reading, saying sounds according to letter-to-sound correlations, finding the sight words/sticky words, using prior knowledge to read those words, pausing at end marks, understanding where sentences begin, and modeling proper book handling. Students read the book a second time by taking turns, in partners, switching off by page, or in small groups. 

  • In the Blue Teacher Planner, Week 6, Days 121-125, the focus for the week is on blends. There are two decodable texts for the week called “Duck Up a Hill” and “Frog and The Plant”.  In the whole group lesson with “Duck Up a Hill”, the teacher reads the book with the students first, then students practice with a partner, switching off reading sentences in the book out loud. The second text is a short story. The teachers tell the students to decode each word in the sentence and re-read the sentence for meaning.  Students read independently, and then read with partners. 

  • In the Orange Teacher Planner, Week 15, Days 246-250, the focus for the week is Vowel Teams ee, ea, and ai. In the whole class lesson Step 5 Book: “Fish Gets Clean” on pages 392-395 of the Teacher Planner, students use the decodable book” Fish Gets Clean" to practice reading words with the focus vowel teams. During that day’s lesson, the teacher reads the book with the students, and then students read the book again with a partner.

Reading practice occurs in decodable texts (i.e., an absence of predictable texts) until students can accurately decode single syllable words. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • In the Blue Teacher Planner,  in each week of instruction, students read phonics books or short stories each week to practice decoding single-syllable and multisyllabic words. In Week 11, Days 146-150, students read the phonics book “Dog Is Lost”.

  • In the Blue Teacher Planner, Scope and Sequence states the decodable text that will be used weekly to align with each week’s phonic focus. Steps 2-3 lasts 16 weeks, starting with blends and ending with multisyllabic words. Each week has at least one decodable text, and many of the weeks have more than one decodable text or passage. For example, Week 7 has the decodable text “Chimp Gets a Check-Up’.  Week 10 has two decodable texts, one of which is “Chimp Chats”. Week 14 has the decodable text “Pig Has a Bath”. 

  • In the Orange Teacher Planner, beginning in Week 3, students read phonics books or short stories each week to practice decoding single syllable, and multisyllabic words. In Week 11, Days 226-230, students read the phonics book “Duck Feels Sick”.

  • In the Orange Teacher Planner, Week 8, Week 211-215, students read the decodable text “Frog Has the Blues.”

Indicator 1N
02/04

Materials regularly and systematically offer assessment opportunities that measure student progress of phonics in- and out-of-context (as indicated by the program scope and sequence).

The materials include formal assessments, Check-Ups, and Practice Pages for teachers to use in collecting ongoing data about students’ progress in phonics. Some Check-Up assessment items address phonics skills, and there are formal phonics assessments at the beginning and end of the unit where students can demonstrate mastery and independence of phonics skills. Teachers are provided with information on how to analyze the results of assessments; however, limited information is provided to teachers to respond with follow-up phonics instruction or instructional adjustments to address phonics skills.

Materials regularly and systematically provide a 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:

  • On the Express Readers Website, The Teacher’s Platform, Steps 1-5, Teacher Resources, Assessments, Information, Assessment Schedule Steps 1-5, this document tells each assessment type, step, week, day, skills assessed, purpose, and location/materials needed. For example, Step 4, Week 10 contains the Step 4 Assessment which is the formal assessment at the end of that Step.  Steps 4-5, Weeks 3-9, 11-14, 16-17 each have a spelling quiz for encoding the phonics focus for the week. Week 16 has a formal assessment about phonics and letter name that is listed for the purpose of progress testing/assessment.  Week 17 has Step 5, Formal Assessment. 

  • In the Blue Teacher Planner, the following assessment opportunities are provided: 

    • In Week 5, Check-Up 8, six of the 16 assessment items address phonics skills. For Items 11-12, the teacher says the first word in the row, and students find and circle every word in the row that rhymes with the first word. For Items 13-16, the teacher says a word, and the students circle the letters in the written word that correspond to the blend they heard. 

    • In Week 6, the Step 2 assessment is given. Students are required to do the following: read sentences and draw pictures of what they read; read sentences and add to the given picture to make the sentences true; fill in missing letters to create words; given a word bank, students must write words to go with pictures; circle rhyming words; and pick a sentence that goes with a picture.

Practice pages are provided that allow students to practice phonics skills. Teachers can assess students’ progress by analyzing their work on practice pages.

  • In the Orange Teacher Planner, the following assessment opportunities are provided:

    • The Formal Assessment: Phonics/Blending/Reading is given in Weeks 2 and 10 at the beginning and end of Step 4, and addresses skills from Steps 1-5. This assessment assesses students’ knowledge of:

      • letter names for all 26 letters

      • the most basic sound for all 21 consonants (letter to sound correspondence)

      • the most basic sounds for the five short vowels (letter to sound correspondence)

      • blending real words

        • CVC words (Step 1)

        • words with blends and short vowels (Step 2)

        • words with digraphs and short vowels (Step 3)

        • CVCe words / Sneaky “e” (Step 4)

        • vowel teams (Step 5)

      • blending nonsense words

        • CVC words (Step 1)

        • words with blends and short vowels (Step 2)

        • words with digraphs and short vowels (Step 3)

        • CVCe words / Sneaky “e” (Step 4)

        • vowel teams (Step 5)

      • simple sentences 

        • CVC words (Step 1)

        • words with blends and short vowels (Step 2)

        • words with digraphs and short vowels (Step 3)

        • CVCe words / Sneaky “e” (Step 4)

        • vowel teams (Step 5)

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 Blue Teacher Planner, Week 11, Days 146-150, Assessment, Formal Assessment: Placement and Progress, the teachers are assessing each student on: letter names, consonant sounds, vowel sounds, blending real words, blending nonsense words, and simple Sentences. The assessment recommends that students receiving 10 or less on any part of the letter names or letter sounds assessment, aside from the vowel portion, to end the assessment. If students receive 3 or less on any of the other sections within the assessment, teachers are advised to end the assessment. The levels in the assessment help teachers place students within the Steps for optimal learning. This assessment is a progress report of how far students have come and if they should move on to Step 4 or higher. 

  • In the Blue Teacher Planner, Week 10, Days 141-145, the teacher administers Check-Up 10 to students. In Response to Assessment, the following information is provided for teachers: "NOTE: Students who are consistently not scoring well on these check-ups could be having an auditory processing obstacle. Students are possibly not processing auditory information with accuracy. Teachers should seek out further evaluations.”

    • Possible meanings of an insufficient score for 1-6: (3-6 incorrect) 

      • Students are not hearing/discriminating and isolating consonant digraph sounds to hear differences. 

      • Students are not sufficiently versed in the “sh” digraph.

    • Possible meanings of an insufficient score for #7-10: (2-4 incorrect)

      • Students are not able to auditorily blend segmented sounds in words with digraphs.

    • Possible meanings of an insufficient score for #11-18: (4-8 incorrect) 

      • Students are not recognizing or identifying the letter representations for the sounds that make consonant digraphs and/or blends. 

  • In the Orange Teacher Planner, Step 4, Week 5, Days 196-200, the teacher administers Check-Up 13 to students. In Response to Assessment, the following information is provided for teachers:“NOTE: Students who are consistently not scoring well on these check-ups could be having an auditory processing obstacle. Students are possibly not processing auditory information with accuracy. Teachers should seek out further evaluations.” 

    • Possible meanings of an insufficient score for #1-6: (3-6 incorrect) 

      • Students are not hearing/discriminating and isolating medial (vowel) sounds to hear differences. 

      • Students are not sufficiently versed in the understanding of a long vowel sound versus a short vowel sound.

    • Possible meanings of an insufficient score for #7-10: (2-4 incorrect)

      • Students are not able to auditorily blend segmented sounds in words.

    • Possible meanings of an insufficient score for #11-14: (2-4 incorrect) 

      • Students are not recognizing or identifying the letter representations for the sounds that make consonant digraphs and/or blends. 

    • Possible meanings of an insufficient score for #15-18: (2-4 incorrect) 

      • Students are not hearing the medial vowel sound correctly or are not understanding the rule of sneaky e

  • In the Orange Teacher Planner, Week 15, Days 246-250, the teacher administers Check-Up #16 to students. In Response to Assessment, the following information is provided for teachers: “NOTE: Students who are consistently not scoring well on these check-ups could be having an auditory processing obstacle. Students are possibly not processing auditory information with accuracy. Teachers should seek out further evaluations.” 

    • Possible meanings of an insufficient score for 1-4: (2-4 incorrect) 

      • Students are not retaining learned phonics. 

      • Students are not matching spoken sounds to specific spellings. 

    • Possible meanings of an insufficient score for 5-8: (2-4 incorrect)

    • Students are not able to auditorily blend segmented sounds in words.

    • Possible meanings of an insufficient score for 9-12: (2-4 incorrect) 

      • Students are not identifying all sounds in a spoken word. 

      • Students are not implementing learned phonics in spelling. 

      • Students are not connecting spoken sounds to letter representations. 

    • Possible meanings of an insufficient score for 13-18: (3-6 incorrect) 

      • Students are not hearing individual phonemes in spoken words.

      • Students are not manipulating sounds in spoken words with ease. 

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 Orange Teacher Planner, Week 15, Days 246-250, the teacher administers Check-Up 16 to students. In Response to Assessment, the following information is provided for teachers: 

    • For practice towards mastery in spelling learned phonics: 

      • Review phonics learned, such as crash letters (consonant digraphs), the blender (blends), vowel teams (vowel combinations), and sneaky e (ending e that is used for long vowel spellings).

      • Participate in Name That Sound frequently. Students practice recognizing the sound for spellings.

    • For practice towards mastery in encoding (writing spoken sounds): 

      • Review phonics learned, such as crash letters (consonant digraphs), the blender (blends), vowel teams (vowel combinations), and sneaky e (ending “e” that is used for long vowel spellings).

      • Participate in frequent dictation (listening to a spoken word and spelling without a visual). 

      • Participate in Wonder Words activities, listening to spoken words and finding the correct letter cards to lay out on the Wonder Words mat.

  • In the Blue Teacher Planner, Week 14, Days 161-165, Assessment, Spelling Quiz, the phonics focus for the week is on -nk. The planner states the quiz needs to be planned for the end of the week after working with the spelling list and the completion of all corresponding activities with or by students. The words that will be assessed are think, wink, thank, drink, sink, honk, trunk, junk, bank, shrink, dunk, and chunk. The students complete the assessment on the spelling quiz template sheet. The planner does not state how to utilize the results from this assessment to inform instruction or how to use the data to determine the students’ progress or lack of progress. A similar spelling quiz is given Weeks 1-16, every week of Steps 2-3. The same directions are provided for each quiz.  

  • In the Blue Teacher Planner, Week 6, Days 121-125, Assessment, Formal Assessment, Step Assessments are given at the end of each Step to create a written record of student understanding and ability with the given material. The phonics objectives for this Step Assessment are to show and implement knowledge of decoding words with blends and short vowels, listening for missing phonemes, recognizing the letter that corresponds to a sound, and comprehending a short text that was decoded. The assessment states that if a modification is needed, students need to remain in Step 2 for further instruction and practice.  

Criterion 1.3: Word Recognition and Word Analysis

07/12

Materials and instruction support students in learning and practicing regularly and irregularly spelled high-frequency words.

The materials include systematic and explicit instruction of high-frequency words within the SOS lessons, including Sticky Words and See-Me-Say-Me words. Lessons include teacher modeling of the spelling and reading of high-frequency words, which includes connecting phonemes to graphemes. Students have opportunities to practice identifying and reading high-frequency words in isolation at the conclusion of the SOS lessons. The materials include student practice for identifying and reading high-frequency words in isolation and context. Each week, most of the high-frequency independent tasks during the SOS activities have students tracing, coloring, finding, or reading the high-frequency words. However, students have limited opportunities to write high-frequency words in tasks to promote automaticity and fluency. The materials include limited explicit instruction in syllable types and instruction in dividing multisyllabic words. There are also missed opportunities for explicit instruction in morpheme analysis to decode unknown words. Students have limited opportunities to learn, practice, and apply word analysis strategies. The materials have regular and systematic assessment opportunities over the course of the year to demonstrate students’ progress toward mastery and independence of word recognition but not word analysis. Most of the opportunities assess high-frequency words, regular and irregularly spelled words, while there are few opportunities to assess word analysis skills of decodable words. Assessments provide guidance on student skill levels and recommendations for assessment-based steps to help students progress toward mastery in word recognition.

Indicator 1O
02/02

Materials include explicit instruction in identifying the regularly spelled part and the temporarily irregularly spelled part of words. High-frequency word instruction includes spiraling review.

The materials include systematic and explicit instruction of high-frequency words within the SOS lessons, including Sticky Words and See-Me-Say-Me words. Lessons include teacher modeling of the spelling and reading of the high-frequency words which includes connecting phoneme to grapheme. Students have opportunities to practice identifying and reading high-frequency words in isolation at the conclusion of the SOS lessons, which includes students practicing with flash cards, reading sentences with the high-frequency words, and searching for high-frequency words within practice pages or text. 

Materials include systematic and explicit instruction of high-frequency words with an explicit and consistent instructional routine. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • In the Blue Teacher Planner,, Week 3, Days 106-110, SOS Words Lesson 2, see-me-say-me portion of the lesson, the teacher teaches the words must, just, best, and fast. The teacher writes or displays the words, and asks students what the words have in common. The teacher says the sounds in the words and asks the students to blend the sounds with them. After explaining the meanings of the words, the teacher uses the words in sentences and asks students to think of sentences using the words. 

  • In the Blue Teacher Planner, Week 8, Days 131-135, SOS Words Lesson 1, focuses on two types of words: sticky words (common words with irregular spellings or not decodable at an early level), and see-me-say-me words (high-frequency/decodable words). The teacher displays the word look in a visible place. The teacher explains l and k spell their basic phonics sound, but oo spells the short /u/ sound. The teacher is provided with other examples to help display the short /u/, oo sound, such as in: good, hoof, and book. 

  • In the Blue Teacher Planner, Week 10, Days 141-145, the teacher explains that a sticky word is a word that we can get stuck on. They explain that a word can be sticky because students have not yet learned the sound spellings yet. The teacher is then prompted to review previous sticky words, and identify spellings that can be tricky. 

  • In the Orange Teacher Planner, Week 2, Days 181-185, the teacher explains that the see-me-say me words are words that we can decode, but that we see these words so often that we should learn them quickly to understand what we are reading. Students sing a song, and then teachers say the word out loud. 

Materials include teacher modeling of the spelling and reading of high-frequency words that includes connecting the phonemes to the graphemes. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • In the Blue Teacher Planner, Week 4, Days 115-120, SOS Words Lesson 1, the teacher introduces the sticky words does and have. The teacher displays the words in a visible place. The materials direct the teacher to explain that does spells the sounds /d/ /u/ /z/, although the rules state that it should not. The teacher explains the meaning of the word does (another form of the word do). The teacher states that have has a “sneaky e” and that a should say its name in this word, but it spells /ǎ/. 

  • In the Blue Teacher Planner, Week 10, Days 141-145, SOS Words Lesson 2, the teacher displays the see-me-say-me words this and that. The teacher points out the phonics chunk th which is a consonant digraph, reminding students that the sound spelled is /th/ voiced, with a vibration created in the mouth. The teacher tells students the sounds spelled in the word, and asks students to blend the sounds with them. 

  • In the Orange Teacher Planner, Week 13, Days 236-240, SOS Words Lesson 1, the teacher introduces the words what, may, away, and eight. For the word what, the teacher explains that w spells /w/, and that you cannot hear the h as it has been taught. For the words may and away, the teacher explains that ay is a spelling for the long vowel sound /ā/. For the word eight, the teacher explains that another spelling for long /ā/ is eigh.  

Materials include a sufficient quantity of high-frequency words for students to make reading progress. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • On the Express Readers website, Sight Word Map outlines all of the SOS words that will be taught each week in the Steps 2-3 program. 

    • Week 1 - had, sit, let, yes, him, his, red

    • Week 2 - help, jump

    • Week 3 - must, just, best, fast

    • Week 4 - ask, its, went

    • Week 5 - well, will, tell, off

    • Week 6 - Review

    • Week 7 - wish 

    • Week 8 - much

    • Week 9 - Review Steps 1-2

    • Week 10 - that, this

    • Week 11 - then, them

    • Week 12 - with, black

    • Week 13 - pink

    • Week 14 - think, thank

    • Week 15 - Review

    • Week 16 - Review

  • On the Express Readers website, Sight Word Map outlines all of the SOS words that will be taught each week in the Steps 4-5 program. 

    • Week 1 - Review Steps 1-3

    • Week 2 - Review Steps 1-3

    • Week 3 - came, gave, take

    • Week 4 - ate, make, made

    • Week 5 - ride, five

    • Week 6 - goes, use

    • Week 7 - six, seven

    • Week 8 - here, blue

    • Week 9 - those, these

    • Week 10 - Review

    • Week 11 - ten, nine

    • Week 12 - green, seen

    • Week 13 - sleep, keep

    • Week 14 - read, eat

    • Week 15 - been, please

    • Week 16 - Review all words, Steps 1-5

    • Week 17 - Review all words, Steps 1-5

    • Week 18 - Review all words, Steps 1-5

Indicator 1P
01/02

Instructional opportunities are frequently built into the materials for students to practice and gain decoding automaticity of high-frequency words.

The materials include student practice for identifying and reading high-frequency words in isolation and in context. Each week, most of the high-frequency independent tasks during the SOS activities have students tracing, coloring, finding, or reading the high-frequency words. However, students have limited opportunities to write high-frequency words in tasks in order to promote automaticity and fluency.

Students practice decoding high-frequency words in isolation. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • In the Blue Teacher Planner, Week 4, Days 111-115, students practice the words ask, its, and went. Students read the three words at the top of the page, then read each sentence and decide which word fits best in each sentence. Each word is used more than one time.

  • In the Blue Teacher Planner, Week 6, Days 121-125, students read the see - me- say me- words using flash cards. 

  • In the Blue Teacher Planner, Week 13, Days 156-160, students practice high-frequency words in isolation. Students review and read all sticky words and see-me-say me words from previous lessons in the SOS Words activities lesson 1 and 2. 

  • In the Orange Teacher Planner,, Week 16, Days 251-255, students play a game called Slap/Tap using Steps 4-5 see-me-say-me word flashcards.  Students lay the words down, and listen for the word that the teacher calls. Students find that word and slap or tap it.  

Lessons provide students with frequent opportunities to read high-frequency words in context. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • In the Blue Teacher Planner, Week 5, Days 116-120, students practice the words do and like. In the activity Do You Like to…, students read each sentence. Students circle the word do and underline the word like. 

  • In the Blue Teacher Planner, Week 7, Days 126 - 130, students read a text with the SOS words does, to, he, be, sees, and like. Students read the book and find the sight words and read them. 

  • In the Blue Teacher Planner, Week 13, Days 156-160, students review old sticky words: he, he, be, good, like, and does. They practice reading these words in context in the decodable text, “Duck Sings a Song.”  

  • In the Orange Teacher Planner, Week 3, Days 186-190, students practice the words walk, do, over, for, they, go, the, to, and of. In the activity Color the Story 3, students read each of the sticky words and circle the words with the correct color in the passage. Students read the passage in a small group, with a partner, or on their own, depending on their level of confidence and fluency. 

  • In the Orange Teacher Planner, Week 16, Days 251-255, students practice reading the sticky words knew and know in a decodable text “Bug’s Camping Trip”. The students locate the words in the text and then read the text.  

Lessons provide students with limited opportunities to write high-frequency words in tasks, such as sentences, in order to promote automaticity of high-frequency words. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • In the Blue Teacher Planner, Step 3, Week 14, Days 161-165, students practice writing the Sticky Words they, and want in the activity What’s Missing? This is a printable activity where the page is divided into two columns, and students write the high frequency words by filling in the missing letters then use one of the words in a sentence at the bottom of the page. Another activity this same week is Write a Thank You Note, which requires students to write a thank you note to someone who gave them a gift. By doing this, the students will use the word thank, which is a see-me-say-me word for the week.

  • In the Orange Teacher Planner, Step 5, Week 11, Days 226-230, in SOS Words Lesson 2, students review the Sticky Words when, how, or why. In the activity When, How, Why, students read each question and the answer below the question. Students decide and write which question word from the word bank (when, how, or why) belongs at the beginning of the question.

Indicator 1Q
02/04

Materials include explicit instruction in syllabication and morpheme analysis and provide students with practice opportunities to apply learning.

The materials include limited explicit instruction in syllable types and instruction in dividing multisyllabic words. There are missed opportunities for a clear explanation of how to divide multisyllabic words. There are also missed opportunities for explicit instruction in morpheme analysis to decode unknown words. There are limited opportunities for students to learn, practice, and apply word analysis strategies. 

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

  • In the Blue Teacher Planner, Week 15, Days 166-170, the materials provide guidance to teach the word all. The materials state that all is an open syllable word, and it gives other examples of open syllables such as ball, walk, tall, talk; however, the words listed are closed syllables.

  • In the Blue Teacher Planner, Week 15, Days 166-170, the teacher explains that multisyllabic words are words with more than one syllable. The teacher also explains that each syllable in multisyllabic words has a long or short vowel. The teacher writes the word basket on the board, circling bask and et to show a word with more than one syllable. The teacher explains that the et syllable has a vowel like all syllables, but it is not an actual word. This means that the word is multisyllabic but not compound. The teacher explains that compound words are multisyllabic words, but multisyllabic words are not necessarily compound words. The teacher continues with more words including ladybug, firefly, doghouse, hedgehog, pigpen, and hotdog

  • In the Orange Teacher Planner, Week 8, Days 211-215, the teacher models how to recognize multisyllabic words and segment a written word. The teacher segments the words upset, backside, and escape. Then students practice drawing lines between syllables in the words upset, pancake, enrichment, magnet, cactus, envelope, backfire, fireplace, finish, camel, inside, hospital, illustrate, helmet, pencil, and happen. However, materials incorrectly teach how to divide the syllables in the words illustrate and happen.

  • In the Orange Teacher Planner, Week 16, Days 251-255, the teacher reviews open and closed syllables. For open syllables, the following is provided: 

    • Write the word “refuse” 

    • Teachers circle “re” and “fuse” explaining that multisyllabic words can be read in parts, and each part has a vowel. 

    • Teachers ask what letter the syllable/word ends with (e)

    • Teachers ask if that is a vowel or consonant (vowel)

    • Teachers explain that:

      • Syllables that end with a vowel are MOST OFTEN read as a long vowel.  

      • If a syllable does NOT end with a consonant, it often makes the vowel long

    • Examples: pre-tend, e-lec-tric, po-ta-to, re-spect-ful, qui-et, o-pen

    • Words with one vowel, where the one vowel is open, MOST OFTEN have a long vowel such as: so, be, he, she, me, hi, go, no

    • Some words do not follow the rule which is why many rules in reading apply to “most often”. Example: to, do, the 

    • Teachers write the word “robot” and ask students if they can identify where to split the word to show the division of syllables (ro-bot)

    • Teachers model saying the long /o/ for the open syllable

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

  • No evidence found.

Limited 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 the Orange Teacher Planner, Week 9, Days 216-220, students review open and closed syllables by reading each multisyllabic word, drawing a line between the syllables, and deciding whether the word has all closed syllables or if there are open syllables in the word.  Students sort the words between open or closed syllables. 

  • In the Blue Teacher Planner, Week 15, Days 166-170, students practice compound words by using their Compound Word Base and Compound Word Picture sets. They cut them apart and arrange the eight pictures on the base to create four new words. The teacher checks for accuracy before students glue the pictures. Then, students write the new word in the last box and draw a picture to show its meaning. 

  • In the Orange Teacher Planner, Week 8, Days 211-215, students recognize multisyllabic words and decode closed-syllable words, some spelled with the “sneaky” e. Students work independently on syllables dividing with an independent practice page by drawing a line between each syllable in the words. Students practice decoding the word after drawing the line to help them decode the word in pieces.  

Indicator 1R
02/04

Materials 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 regular and systematic assessment opportunities over the course of the year to demonstrate students’ progress toward mastery and independence of word recognition but not word analysis. Most of the opportunities assess high-frequency words, regular, and irregularly spelled words, while there are few opportunities to assess word analysis skills of decodable words. Assessments provide guidance on student skill levels and recommendations for assessment-based steps to help students progress toward mastery in word recognition. The recommendations provided refer teachers back to previously taught activities. 

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 but not word analysis. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • The Blue Teacher Planner includes three assessment opportunities: Week 4 -  SOS Check 4, Week 9- SOS Check 5, and Week 15 - SOS Check 6. 

  • In the Blue Teacher Planner, Week 9, Days 136-140, SOS Check 5 assesses students’ knowledge and retention of all previously taught high-frequency words and sight words.

  • In the Blue Teacher Planner, Week 11, Days 146-150, an assessment is provided to assess students blending real and nonsense words and simple sentences. Students will be assessed in Steps 2, 3, 4, and 5 on: 

    • Words with blends and short vowels (Step 2) 

    • Words with digraphs and short vowels (Step 3) 

    • CVCe words/Sneaky “e” (Step 4) 

    • Vowel teams (Step 5) 

  • The Orange Teacher Planner includes three assessment opportunities: Week 7 - SOS Check 7; Week 14 -  SOS Check 8; Week 17 - SOS Check 9.

  • In the Orange Teacher Planner, Week 18, Days 261-265, SOS Check 9 assesses students’ knowledge and retention of all previously taught high-frequency words and sight words.

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

  • In the Blue Teacher Planner, Week 4, Days 111-115, SOS Check 4 assesses student knowledge of the high-frequency words (see-me-say-me words), and sight words (sticky words). The words assessed are: had, sit, let, yes, him, his, went, help, jump, must, best, just, ask, fast, its, no, do, put, puts, does, have, who, so, and of. If students read 20-24 words correctly then students are proficiently retaining the words and gaining fluency. If students read 15-19 words correctly then students are developing their sight word vocabulary but need further practice to master and gain fluency. If students read 14 or fewer words correctly then students are not retaining a sufficient number of the words being taught and practiced. 

  • In the Blue Teacher Planner, Week 5, Days 116-120, if students get 1-2 correct on the assessment, then students are not able to isolate the blend sound or recognize the letter representation for the sounds in the blend. 

  • In the Orange Teacher Planner, Week 7, Days 206-210, SOS Check 7 assesses student knowledge of the high-frequency words (see-me-say-me words) and sight words (sticky words). The words assessed are: came, six, made, ride, seven, take, make, gave, goes, ate, five, use, walk, you, says, they, live, when, again, over, wants, four, my, do, your, how, and give. If students read 86-100% of the words correctly then students are proficiently retaining the words and gaining fluency. If students read 65-85% of the words correctly then students are developing their sight word vocabulary but need further practice to master and gain fluency. If students read 0-64% of the words correctly then students are not retaining a sufficient number of the words being taught and practiced. 

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

  • In the Blue Teacher Planner, Week 4, Days 111-115, SOS Check 4, suggestions include reteaching the introductions to the words and doing the following to support practice and learning, followed by re-assessing: 

    • Use Splat Sounds Board - Students write the word into a set of boxes. Students identify and color letters and spellings that sound as they should by coloring them green. Students “SPLAT” the sounds that do not sound as they should (according to learned phonics rules/sounds/spellings). 

    • Play Slap/Tap with students several times a week in a quick game of review for the sight words learned. 

    • Create opportunities for students to read those words in text, such as pointing to the word in a read aloud and asking if students can read that word for teachers. 

    • Ask students to find and circle a focus sight word on a page of text or a book being read in class. 

  • In the Orange Teacher Planner, Week 8, Days 211 - 215, guidance states that the student should work on the crash letters with consonant digraphs, the blender (blends), and sneaky e activities. 

  • In the Orange Teacher Planner, Week 14, Days 241-245, SOS Check 8 the materials provide the following supports for students if they are not fluent with the sight words (sticky words and see-me-say-me words) 

    • Use Splat Sound Boards. Students write the words into a set of boxes.  Students identify and color letters and spellings that sound as they should by coloring them green. Students “SPLAT” the sounds that do not sound as they should (according to learned phonics rules/sounds/spellings). Words mapped for Splat Sounds Boards can be found in the TGB pgs. 33-34.

    • Play Slap/Tap with students several times a week in a quick game of review for the sight words learned. 

    • Create opportunities for students to read those words in text, such as pointing to the word in a read aloud and asking if students can read that word for teachers. 

    • Ask students to find and circle a focus sight word on a page of text or a book being read in class. 

Criterion 1.4: Fluency

06/12

Materials provide systematic and explicit instruction and practice in fluency by mid-to-late 1st and 2nd grade. Materials for 2nd grade fluency practice should vary (decodables and grade-level texts).

The materials include frequent opportunities for explicit, systematic instruction in automaticity and accuracy using phonics books and decodable texts. The materials provide frequent opportunities for students to gain automaticity and prosody in reading. Students have multiple practice opportunities for reading fluency through a variety of reading activities and settings in centers, such as reading to a teacher, to a book buddy (stuffed animal), to a classmate, or independently in centers. The materials provide limited guidance for corrective feedback. Materials do not include formal assessments and there are limited informal assessment opportunities provided in centers within the materials to assess students’ reading fluency. Materials do not provide the teacher and students with information about students' current skills/level of understanding of oral reading fluency.

Indicator 1S
04/04

Instructional opportunities are built into the materials for systematic, evidence-based, explicit instruction in oral reading fluency.

The materials include frequent opportunities for explicit, systematic instruction in automaticity and accuracy using phonics books and decodable texts. The teacher models how to read with intonation and expression, use expression based on end marks and punctuation, pause reading to take breaths and read with a rhythm and consistent pace. Students hear fluent reading from the teacher, a classmate, or choral reading activities. Additional lessons for fluency are found within center activities.

Materials include frequent opportunities for explicit, systematic instruction in rate, accuracy, and prosody using grade-level connected text (e.g., decodable texts, poetry, readers’ theater, paired reading). Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • In the Blue Teacher Planner, Week 9, Days 136-140, students work on reading ending digraphs ch, sh, th, -tch, and fluency of this skill when reading the Step 3 Phonics Book “Fish Had a Wish.” The teacher explains that when we read out loud, we need to use intonation, “read punctuation” by pausing or taking a breath, read with rhythm and consistent pace, and read with a pace that is not too slow or too fast. 

  • In the Blue Teacher Planner,  Week 10, Days 141-145, using the decodable text  “Chimp Camps,” the teacher explains the following to students: 

    • It is ok to read slowly and carefully. Reading slowly and carefully will help us avoid making mistakes. 

    • Re-read if a passage or book has been difficult or slow to read

    • Use intonation with teachers modeling 2-3 sentences with expression and then in a monotone voice for students to hear the difference 

    • Read punctuation or allow for expression based on marking and to model how to do this

    • Read with a rhythm and consistent pace and model how to do this 

  • In the Blue Teacher Planner, Week 13, Days 156-160, the teacher reads “Duck Sings a Song” aloud, modeling how to pause reading at end marks. The teacher explains how to read with intonation and expression, how to use expression based on end marks and punctuation, how to pause reading to take breaths, and how to read with a rhythm and consistent pace. 

  • In the Orange Teacher Planner, Week 9, Days 216 - 220, the teacher explains to students that it is okay to slow down and read carefully. The teacher then explains that when we read aloud you need to use intonation and that reading in a monotone makes the reading boring. 

  • In the Orange Teacher Planner,  Week 12, Days 231-235, the teacher explains that we need to read for punctuation or allow for expression based on marking, allow for pausing or taking a breath. 

Materials provide opportunities for students to hear fluent reading of grade-level text by a model reader. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • In the Blue Teacher Planner, Week 2, Days 101-105, the teacher reads the book “Duck Has a Nest” aloud, modeling how to pause reading at end marks, how to use expression, intonation, and pace.

  • In the Orange Teacher Planner, Week 4, Days 191-195, the teacher reads the book aloud “Duck Bakes a Cake,” modeling how to pause reading at end marks, how to use expression, intonation, and pace.

  • In the Blue Teacher Planner, Week 7, Days 126-130, the teacher reads the book “Chimp Gets a Check-Up,” modeling reading with expression, pausing at end marks, reading with rhythm and consistent pacing. The teacher also models what reading without all of those will sound like for students to hear what not to do when decoding. 

  • In the Blue Planner, Week 13, Days 156-160, the teacher reads the book "Duck Sings a Song,” modeling reading with expression, pausing at end marks, reading with rhythm and consistent pacing.  The teacher models what reading without all of those will sound like for students to hear what not to do when decoding. 

Materials include a variety of resources for explicit instruction in oral reading fluency; however, resources are more for practice as opposed to explicit instruction. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • In the Blue Teacher Planner, Scope and Sequence, the teacher provides explicit instruction in fluency during whole-class lessons using phonics books, Weeks 1-6; Whole-class lessons using short stories, Weeks 3-6; Daily Dos activities where the teacher reads poems, Weeks 1-3.

  • In the Blue Teacher Planner, Week 12, Days 151-155, the teacher uses the Step 3 Book, “Cub Has a Picnic” to model decoding phonetically regular words and practice reading a text multiple times to work towards accuracy and automaticity and engage in supported practice to gain oral reading fluency. 

  • In the Blue Teacher Planner, Week 15, Days 166-170, the teacher uses the Express Readers phonics books Fish Swims to model decoding phonetically regular words and practice reading a text multiple times to work towards accuracy and automaticity. 

  • In the Orange Teacher Planner, Scope and Sequence,the teacher provides explicit instruction in fluency during Whole-class lessons using phonics books, Weeks 3-9; Whole-class lessons using short stories, Week 7.

Indicator 1T
02/04

Varied and frequent opportunities are built into the materials for students to engage in supported practice to gain automaticity and prosody beginning in mid-Grade 1 and through Grade 2 (once accuracy is secure).

The materials provide frequent opportunities for students to gain automaticity and prosody in reading. Students have multiple practice opportunities for reading fluency through a variety of reading activities and settings in centers, such as reading to a teacher, to a book buddy (stuffed animal), to a classmate, or independently in centers. The materials provide limited guidance for corrective feedback.

Varied, frequent opportunities are provided over the course of the year for students to gain automaticity and prosody. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following: 

  • In the Blue Teacher Planner, Week 1, Days 96-100, students read “Duck and His Mom” with a partner, switching off reading sentences in the book out loud. Then, students reread sentences if they need to slow down to decode words. 

  • In the Blue Teacher Planner, Week 13, Days 156-160, students read “Duck Sings a Song”with a partner, switching off reading sentences in the book out loud. Then, students reread sentences if they need to slow down to decode words. Students color the digraphs in words with a crayon to help them recognize the grapheme as one sound, and help build accuracy and automaticity when decoding words with digraphs. 

  • In the Orange Teacher Planner, Week 11, Days 226 - 230, students read “Duck Feels Sick” with a partner. They should reread the sentence if they get stuck on a word or struggle to identify words. 

  • In the Orange Teacher Planner, Week 14, Days 241 - 245, students read “Snakes on a Train” with a partner while focusing on reading with accuracy and fluency.

Materials provide practice opportunities for word reading fluency in a variety of settings (e.g., repeated readings, dyad or partner reading, continuous reading). Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • In the Blue Teacher Planner, Week 2, Days 101-105, students read “Duck Has a Nest” with a partner, switching off reading sentences in the book out loud. Students reread sentences if they need to slow down to decode or identify words. An alternative activity idea is listed that the student can keep this book at their seat/desk for a quiet reading activity.  

  • In the Blue Teacher Planner, Week 13, Days 156-160, students read “Duck Sings a Song” with a partner, taking turns reading sentences aloud. 

  • In the Orange Teacher Planner, Week 13, Days 236-240, students read “Dog’s Feast”with a partner, taking turns reading sentences aloud. 

Materials include limited guidance and corrective feedback suggestions to the teacher for supporting students’ gains in oral reading fluency. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • In the Blue Teacher Planner, Week 12, Days 151-155, students practice decoding and building fluency with the short story “Fish Swims”. The teacher reminds students that end marks signify the end of a sentence.

  • In the Orange Teacher Planner, Week 4, Days 191-195,  students read “Duck Bakes a Cake,” The guidance instructs teachers in how to assist with self-correcting by reminding students to think about the sentence as a whole and whether the words make sense, to look carefully at the phonics and sounds in the words, to slow down, and to identify whether the word is a sticky word or decodable. Teachers are also prompted to remind students to read with expression, proper rate, accuracy, and observance of end marks and breaths. 

Indicator 1U
00/04

Materials regularly and systematically offer assessment opportunities that measure student progress in oral reading fluency (as indicated by the program scope and sequence).

Materials do not provide opportunities for students to demonstrate their progress toward mastery of oral reading fluency. Materials do not include formal assessments and there are limited informal assessment opportunities provided in centers within the materials to assess students’ reading fluency. Materials do not  provide the teacher and students with information about students' current skills/level of understanding of oral reading fluency. Opportunities to assess fluency are at the word level ro promote automaticity.

Multiple assessment opportunities are provided regularly and systematically over the course of the year for students to demonstrate progress toward mastery and independence of oral reading fluency.  Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • On the Teacher’s Platform, Teacher Resources, Assessments, Information, Assessment Alignment: Steps 1-5, Kindergarten-First Grade, this document aligns the assessments with CCSS. Fluency is assessed based on this document by reading groups, phonics books (informally) and with short stories. There are no formal assessments listed to assess students’ fluency. 

  • The Blue Planner and the Orange Planner do not provide opportunities for teachers to formally assess students’ progress in reading passages or books fluently.

Assessment materials provide the teacher and students with information about students' current skills/level of understanding of oral reading fluency. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • No evidence found. 

Materials support the teacher with instructional adjustments to help students make progress toward mastery in oral reading fluency. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • In the Orange Teacher Planner, Week 10, Days 221-225, a formal assessment: placement and progress is completed for each student individually so the teacher can focus on each student’s individual needs.  The assessment assesses letters, sounds, blending real words and nonsense words, and simple sentences. The planner states that if students receive 10 or less on any part of the letter names or letter sounds assessment, aside from the vowel portion, teachers are advised to discontinue the assessment. If students receive 5 or less on any of the other sections within the assessments, teachers should discontinue the assessment. The Express Readers’ Online Assessment automatically prompts teachers to end the assessment at certain times if they are using the online assessment instead of the paper copy. The levels shown in the assessment help teachers place students within the Steps for optimal learning per the teacher planner. This assessment round is a progress report of how far students have come and if they should move on to Step 5 or higher.  However, assessing oral reading fluency is not included.

Criterion 2.1: Guidance for Implementation

NE = Not Eligible. Product did not meet the threshold for review.
NE

Materials are accompanied by information that provides the teacher with guidance for implementation of daily lessons and information to enhance teacher knowledge of foundational skills.

Indicator 2A
00/04

Materials provide teacher guidance with useful annotations and suggestions for how to enact the student materials and ancillary materials to support students' literacy development.

Indicator 2B
00/04

Materials contain full, adult-level explanations and examples of the foundational skills concepts included in the program so teachers can improve their own knowledge of the subject, as necessary.

Indicator 2C
00/04

Foundational skills lessons are well-designed and take into account effective lesson structure and pacing. Content can reasonably be completed within a regular school year, and the pacing allows for maximum student understanding.

Indicator 2D
00/02

Materials include publisher-produced alignment documentation of the standards addressed by specific questions, tasks, and assessments and assessment materials clearly denote which standards are being emphasized.

Indicator 2E
Read

Materials contain strategies for informing all stakeholders, including students, parents, or caregivers about the foundational skills program and suggestions for how they can help support student progress and achievement.

Criterion 2.2: Student Supports

NE = Not Eligible. Product did not meet the threshold for review.
NE

The program includes materials designed for each child’s regular and active participation in grade-level/grade-band/series content.

Indicator 2F
00/04

Materials provide strategies and supports for students who read, write, and/or speak in a language other than English to meet or exceed grade-level standards to regularly participate in learning English language arts and literacy.

Indicator 2G
00/04

Materials provide strategies and supports for students in special populations to work with grade-level content and to meet or exceed grade-level standards that will support their regular and active participation in learning English language arts and literacy.

Indicator 2H
Read

Materials provide a balance of images or information about people, representing various demographic and physical characteristics.

Indicator 2I
Read

Materials provide guidance to encourage teachers to draw upon student home language to facilitate learning.

Criterion 2.3: Intentional Design

NE = Not Eligible. Product did not meet the threshold for review.
NE

The program includes a visual design that is engaging and references or integrates digital technology, when applicable, with guidance for teachers.

Indicator 2J
Read

Materials integrate technology such as interactive tools, virtual manipulatives/objects, and/or dynamic software in ways that engage students in the grade-level/series standards, when applicable.

Indicator 2K
Read

The visual design (whether in print or digital) is not distracting or chaotic, but supports students in engaging thoughtfully with the subject.

Indicator 2L
Read

Materials provide teacher guidance for the use of embedded technology to support and enhance student learning, when applicable.