Kindergarten Report Overview

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

The materials provide a defined scope and sequence for letter recognition instruction that can be completed in a reasonable time frame over the school year, which is located in Book 2. The materials include a scope and sequence for phonemic awareness instruction. Materials focus on activities that develop phonemic awareness skills and avoid spending excess time on phonological sensitivity tasks. The materials include systematic and explicit instruction in phonemic awareness skills with repeated teacher modeling. The materials also include teacher guidance on corrective feedback through Positive Error Correction teacher tips and additional guidance in the margins or at the end of lessons. The materials include daily lessons in phonemic awareness that correlate to the phonics portion of the lesson. The materials include Articulation Videos and Guidewords, Movement, and Proper Articulation of Sounds document, which includes examples for instruction in phoneme articulation. The materials offer systematic assessment opportunities to evaluate students’ understanding of phonemic awareness.

The materials do not contain elements of instruction that are based on the three-cueing system for teaching decoding. The materials provide a clear, evidence-based explanation for the order of the phonics scope and sequence. The scope and sequence is intentionally ordered from simpler to more complex skills. Phonics instruction is based on high utility patterns and common phonics generalizations. Instruction starts with letters and corresponding sounds, VCV, digraphs, blends, and two-syllable words with closed syllables. The materials provide appropriate pacing of phonics skills, which are taught daily in 20-30 minute teacher-led whole group lessons, 20-30 minutes daily in small group lessons, and 30-40 minutes of independent practice time each week. Practice activities are provided with one optional activity. There is a weekly cumulative review of the phonics skills for the week on Day 5. Materials review individual sounds and letter names of all letters, and lessons include both decoding and encoding through whole-group instruction and small-group practice on a regular basis. The materials include systematic and explicit instruction in phonics with repeated teacher modeling. The materials contain spelling rules and generalizations aligned to the phonics scope and sequence, and these generalizations are taught in conjunction with reading words that follow these rules. The materials contain decodable texts with phonics aligned to the phonics scope and sequence. The materials regularly and systematically provide a variety of assessments over the course of the school year where students’ progress in phonics can be measured. 

The materials provide systematic and explicit instruction of Heart Words (high-frequency words) with consistent and explicit instructional routines repeated each week for Units 8-16 and 18-28. The materials provide opportunities for students to read high-frequency words in isolation through the Heart Word Magic Videos and practice activities, including Look, Think, Say!, Pop-Up, 3-Up, and Read a Row. The materials include explicit instruction with teacher modeling for syllable types, including the teacher naming the syllable type during explicit instruction and asking students to name the syllable type during student practice. Students have multiple opportunities to use a routine for breaking written words into syllables. However, the materials do not include explicit instruction in morpheme analysis. The materials provide regular assessment opportunities, both formative and summative, at the beginning, middle, and end of the year. The materials also include a Sight Word Assessment to be given at the beginning, middle, and end of the year.