Kindergarten - Gateway 1
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Standards and Research-Based Practices
Alignment to Standards and Research-Based Practices for Foundational Skills Instruction| Score | |
|---|---|
Gateway 1 - Partially Meets Expectations | 65% |
Criterion 1.1: Print Concepts and Letter Recognition (Alphabet Knowledge) | 8 / 10 |
Criterion 1.2: Phonological Awareness | 6 / 12 |
Criterion 1.3: Phonics | 16 / 20 |
Criterion 1.4: Word Recognition and Word Analysis | 4 / 8 |
Criterion 1.5: Decoding Accuracy, Decoding Automaticity and Fluency | 4 / 8 |
The instructional materials reviewed for Kindergarten provide explicit and frequent instruction and practice in letter identification. There are limited opportunities for students to identify letters in meaningful print without the addition of supplemental texts. Materials provide limited instructional support for general concepts of print. Materials provide limited phonological awareness modeling, practice, and review before phonics instruction begins. The program includes frequent opportunities for instruction and practice with newly-acquired phonics skills as students decode and encode words. Application opportunities for decoding phonetically-regular words is not evenly distributed across the program. The materials also lack systematic and repeated modeling that may be necessary for some students to achieve mastery of long vowel sounds. Systematic instruction of high-frequency words and opportunities to practice reading of high-frequency words to develop automaticity are present in the materials, however the number of words included may not be sufficient for students to be prepared for the next grade level and students may not have sufficient opportunities to read and write high-frequency words in authentic tasks. Opportunities for students to practice decoding to develop accuracy and fluency and to read emergent-reader texts for purpose and understanding is limited.
Criterion 1.1: Print Concepts and Letter Recognition (Alphabet Knowledge)
Materials and instruction provide embedded support with general concepts of print, and systematic and explicit instruction and practice for letter recognition.
The instructional materials reviewed for Kindergarten provide explicit instruction in letter identification for all 26 letters (uppercase and lowercase) and materials engage students in frequent practice of letter identification. There are limited opportunities for students to identify letters in meaningful print without the addition of supplemental texts. Students receive explicit instruction to print and practice both upper- and lowercase letters. Materials partially meet the criteria for materials provide instructional support for general concepts of print.
Indicator 1a
Letter Identification
Indicator 1a.i
Materials provide explicit instruction for letter identification of all 26 letters (uppercase and lowercase) (K).
The materials reviewed for Kindergarten meet the criteria for the expectation that materials provide explicit instruction for letter identification of all 26 letters (uppercase and lowercase). (K)
In the Level K Fundations instructional materials, letter identification begins on Day 3 of the Orientation unit. All 26 letters, uppercase and lowercase, are introduced and explicitly taught in Unit 1, Weeks 1-12 of the program. The teacher introduces letters using the Letter-Keyword-Sound Learning Activity. Materials for letter identification include Large Sound Cards and Standard Sound Cards, an Alphabet Wall Strip, and magnetic letter tiles. The explicit instruction of letter identification is systematic and consistent throughout the program.
Materials contain isolated, systematic and explicit instruction for all 26 letters (recognize and name uppercase and lowercase). Examples include, but are not limited to:
- In the Level K Fundations Teacher's Manual, Orientation Unit, Day 3, Letter-Keyword-Sound, page 56, the teacher holds up the Letter Sound Card with the letter t and asks if anyone knows the name of the letter. The teacher tells students the letter name. The teacher holds up the picture and asks what is this picture (top). The teacher says the word top, emphasizes the /t/ sound at the beginning of the word and tells students that the word begins with the sound /t/. The teacher explains that the purpose of the picture to help them remember that the letter makes a special sound.
- In the Level K Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 1, Week 3, Day 1, Letter-Keyword-Sound, page 84, the teacher tells students they will learn two very important letters called vowels. The teacher explains every word requires a vowel. Using the Large Sound Cards and the Standard Sound Cards, the teacher shows students that vowels are a different color than consonants (salmon-colored cards). The teacher follows the procedure for Letter-Keyword-Sound for i and u.
- In the Level K Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 1, Week 4, Day 1, Letter-Keyword-Sound, pages 94-95, instruction for letters c and o is described. The teacher introduces Letter-Keyword-Sound with Large and Standard Sound Cards, c-cat-/k/ and o-octopus-/ō/.
- In the Level K Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 1, Week 11, Day 1, Letter-Keyword-Sound, pages 164-165, the teacher provides instruction for letters y and x. The teacher introduces Letter-Keyword-Sound with Large Sound Cards and Standard Sound Cards, y-yellow-/y/ and x-fox-/ks/. The teacher links the letter name, keyword, and sound with the letters y and x formation. The teacher follows Learning Activity.
There is a defined sequence for letter instruction to be completed in a reasonable time frame over the school year.
- In the Level K Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 1, page 60, indicates that two to three letters are taught each week. The teacher shows the Large Sound Cards and Standard Sound Cards to teach identification of each letter.
- Week 1: Tt, Bb, Ff
- Week 2: Nn, Mm
- Week 3: Ii, Uu
- Week 4: Cc, Oo
- Week 5: Aa, Gg
- Week 6: Dd, Ss
- Week 7: Ee, Rr
- Week 8: Pp, Jj
- Week 9: Ll, Hh, Kk
- Week 10: Vv, Ww
- Week 11: Yy, Xx
- Week 12: Zz, Qq
Indicator 1a.ii
Materials engage students in sufficient practice of letter identification.(K)
The materials reviewed for Kindergarten meet the criteria for the expectation that materials engage students in routine practice of letter identification. (K)
The Level K Fundations instructional materials include routine practice of letter identification for students. Materials include Large Sound Cards and Standard Sound Cards for students to identify all 26 letters. There are the following materials for students to reference letters: Alphabet Wall Strip, student desk tags with letters (Aa-Zz), and magnetic letter tiles. During the following Learning Activities, students practice identifying letters: Letter-Keyword-Sound, Echo/Find Letters, Make It Fun, Drill Sounds/Warm-Up, and Alphabetical Order. Students practice identifying letters in their student notebook.
Materials provide students with frequent opportunities to engage in practice identifying all 26 letters (uppercase and lowercase). Examples include, but are not limited to:
- In Fundations Teacher's Manual Level K, Orientation Unit, Day 3, page 56, Introduce Letter-Keyword-Sound, after the teacher states t-top-/t/ with the Large Sound Card, the students echo the teacher by saying t-top-/t/. The teacher shows the letter t on the Standard Sound Card. Students echo t-top-/t/.
- In Fundations Teacher's Manual Level K, Unit 1, Week 7, Day 3, page 124, Letter-Keyword-Sound, after the teacher states e-Ed-/e/ with the Large Sound Card, the students echo the teacher by saying e-Ed-/e/. The teacher shows the letter e on the Standard Sound Card. Students echo e-Ed-/e/.
- In Fundations Teacher's Manual Level K, Unit 1, Week 9, Day 1, page 144, Letter-Keyword-Sound, after the teacher states l-lamp-/l/ with the Large Sound Card, the students echo the teacher by saying l-lamp-/l/. The teacher shows the letter e on the Standard Sound Card. Students echo l-lamp-/l/.
Materials provide opportunities to engage in practice locating all 26 letters (uppercase and lowercase). Examples include, but are not limited to:
- In Fundations Teacher's Manual Level K, Unit 1, Week 1, Day 3, Echo/Find Letters, page 69, students use their magnetic letter tiles to locate letters. The teacher asks students to identify the sounds and letters for t, b, f. The teacher calls on individual students to come to the front of the class to find and point to letters on the Standard Sound Cards.
- In Fundations Teacher's Manual Level K, Unit 1, Week 5, Day 3, Echo/Find Letters, page 109, students use their magnetic letter tiles to locate letters. The teacher asks students to identify the sounds and letters for t, b, f, n, m, i, u, c, o, a, g. The teacher calls on individual students to come to the front of the class to find and point to letters on the Standard Sound Cards.
- In Fundations Teacher's Manual Level K, Unit 1, Week 11, Day 2, Echo/Find Letters, page 167, students use their magnetic letter tiles to locate letters. The teacher asks students to identify the sounds and letters for t, b, f, n, m, i, u, c, o, a, g, d, s, e, r, p, j, l, h, k, v, w, y, x. The teacher calls on individual students to come to the front of the class to find and point to letters on the Standard Sound Cards.
Materials provide opportunities to engage in naming all 26 letters (uppercase and lowercase). Examples include, but are not limited to:
- In Fundations Teacher's Manual Level K, Unit 2, Week 1, Day 3, Alphabetical Order, page 195, students have magnetic letter tiles on the blank side of their Letter Boards. The teacher asks students to sequentially match letter tiles on the letter squares. Students chorally say the alphabet, pointing to each letter as they say its name.
- In Fundations Teacher's Manual Level K, Unit 3, Week 6, Day 1, Alphabetical Order, page 287, students have magnetic letter tiles on the blank side of their Letter Boards. The teacher asks students to sequentially match letter tiles on the letter squares. Students chorally say the alphabet, pointing to each letter as they say its name.
- In Fundations Teacher's Manual Level K, Unit 1, Week 6, Day 3, Make It Fun, Keyword Puzzle, page 118, each student receives a puzzle piece for the letters taught so far and the picture puzzle pieces. The teacher directs students, “Stand up if you have the letter b. Stand up if you have the picture that goes with b.” Students put the puzzle pieces together in front of the class, and all students say the letter-keyword-sound.
Indicator 1a.iii
Materials embed letter identification practice in meaningful print use.(K)
The materials reviewed for Kindergarten partially meet the criteria for the expectation that materials embed letter identification practice in meaningful print use. (K)
The Level K Fundations program includes minimal use of letter identification practice in meaningful print. ABC storybooks are utilized three times in Unit 2 to transfer knowledge to meaningful print. Storytime stories are located on the online companion, Prevention/Early Intervention Learning Community (PLC) for presenting on a white board or chart. Students are asked to locate words in the passage. There are references in the Teacher's Manual to using an ABC storybook selected by the teacher, but the ABC storybooks are not supplied.
Examples of materials contain a variety of tasks/activities that apply letter identification and naming of all 26 uppercase letters to meaningful print use (e.g., initial letter of a child’s name, environmental print, letter assortments, alphabet books, shared writing) include:
- In the Level K Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 1, Week 11, Day 4, Word Play, page 170, the teacher states: Mike and Amanda have freckles. The teacher tells students that every sentence begins with a capital letter, so the teacher needs to use the tall frame first. The teacher tells students to use the tall frame for the name, because all names begin with a capital letter.
- In the Level K Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 1, Week 12, Day 4, Word Play, page 180, the teacher states: Sondra and Shana had fun. The teacher tells students that every sentence begins with a capital letter, so the teacher needs to use the tall frame first. The teacher tells students to use the tall frame for the name because all names begin with a capital letter.
- In the Level K Fundations Teacher’s Manual, Unit 2, Week 1, Day 5, p. 199, Storytime, teachers are directed to select an ABC book. A list of titles with author and publication information is provided for a small collection. The teacher is directed to stop on a letter page and point it out. “Have a student tell you the corresponding keyword and sound. Have students find and name words that begin with the letter sounds.”
Examples of materials contain a variety of tasks/activities that apply letter identification and naming of all 26 lowercase letters to meaningful print use (e.g., initial letter of a child’s name, environmental print, letter assortments, alphabet books, shared writing).
- In the Level K Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 2, Week 2, Day 5, page 208, in the Storytime activity, the teacher is directed to select an ABC book. A list of titles with author and publication information is provided for a small collection. Teachers are directed to stop on a letter page and point it out. “Have a student tell you the corresponding keyword and sound. Have students find and name words that begin with the letter sounds.”
- In the Level K Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 2, Week 3, Day 5, page 218, in the Storytime activity, the teacher is directed to select an ABC book. A list of titles with author and publication information is provided for a small collection. Teachers are directed to stop on a letter page and point it out. “Have a student tell you the corresponding keyword and sound. Have students find and name words that begin with the letter sounds.”
Indicator 1a.iv
Materials provide explicit instruction to print and to practice forming the 26 letters (uppercase and lowercase).(K-1)
The materials reviewed for Kindergarten meet the criteria for materials provide explicit instruction to print and to practice the 26 letters (uppercase and lowercase).
The Level K Fundations materials provides instruction in letter formation of all 26 lowercase letters, two-to-three per week, in Unit 1 over the course of 12 weeks using the Sky Write/Letter Formation procedure. Uppercase letter formation, two-to-three letters per week, is included daily and presented alphabetically in Unit 2 over the course of 4 weeks. Materials include clear directions for the teacher to explain how to use Wilson font to make each of the 26 letters, upper and lowercase. Students are provided daily opportunities to practice. Methods for explicit teaching and student practice include skywriting, writing on Dry Erase Writing Tablets, and the use of paper/pencil in Student Notebooks.
Examples of materials include clear directions for the teacher concerning how to explain and model how to correctly form each of the 26 letters (uppercase and lowercase) include:
- In the Fundations Letter Formation Guide, the teacher has specific verbalization to direct students in proper letter formation.
- Letter Formation for a. a is a plane line round letter. It starts on the plane line. Point to the plane line. Go back on the plane line then down and around on the grass line, and up to the plane line. Trace back down to the grass line. Say a apple /a/; have students repeat.
- Letter Formation for l. l is a sky line letter. It starts on the sky line. Point to the sky line. Go down to the grass line and stop. Say l lamp /l/; have students repeat.
- Letter Formation for H. Point to the sky line. Go down to the grass line. Leave a space and point to the sky line. Go down to the grass line. Cross straight on the plane line. Say h hat /h/; have students repeat.
Examples of materials include frequent opportunities for students to practice forming all of the 26 letters (uppercase and lowercase) include:
- In the Level K Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 2, Week 2, Day 2, page 203, Echo/Letter Formation, students practice capital letters on the Dry Erase Writing Tablet. The teacher dictates sounds, /a/, /b/, /k/, /d/. Students repeat the sound and name the letter. The teacher uses verbalizations to direct them to first make the uppercase letter, then the corresponding lowercase letter. Students then say letter-keyword-sound.
- In the Level K Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 3, Week 1, Day 3, page 241, Echo/Letter Formation, students practice 5-6 previously taught letters and sounds on the Dry Erase Writing Tablets. The teacher dictates sounds. Students repeat the sound and name the letter. One student makes the letter on the Large Letter Formation Grid, while the rest of the students write their answer on their Dry Erase Writing Tablet.
- In the Level K Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 4, Week 1, Day 4, page 309, Echo/Letter Formation, students practice 5-6 previously taught letters and sounds on the Dry Erase Writing Tablets. The teacher dictates sounds. Students repeat the sound and name the letter. One student makes the letter on the Large Letter Formation Grid, while the rest of the students write their answer on their Dry Erase Writing Tablet.
Examples of materials include frequent opportunities for students to practice forming letters using multimodal and/or multi-sensory methods.
- In the Level K Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 1, Week 1, Day 2, Sky Write/Letter Formation, page 66, the teacher follows the activity procedure and has students sky write letters (b and f).
- In the Level K Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 1, Week 11, Day 2, Sky Write/Letter Formation, page 166, the teacher follows the activity procedure and has students sky write letters (y and x).
- In the Level K Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 2, Week 3, Day 1, page 211, Student Notebook, students find the capital letters I and J. During teacher verbalization students trace the large uppercase letter, then lowercase with their index finger. Next, students practice in their Student Notebooks with a pencil. Teachers circulate the room and assist students with the correct position and the proper pencil grip.
Indicator 1b
Materials provide instructional support for general concepts of print and connect learning of print concepts to books (K-1) and provide cumulative review of print concepts, letter identification, and printing letters. (K-early Grade 1)
The materials reviewed for Kindergarten partially meet the criteria for materials provide instructional support for general concepts of print and connect learning of print concepts to books (K-1) and provide cumulative review of print concepts, letter identification, and printing letters. (K-early Grade 1).
The Level K Fundations curriculum provides limited explicit instructional support for general concepts of print, including print carries meaning, reading left to right, and words are made of letters. Through various Learning Activities, students learn that words are made of letters. Storytime activities implicitly teach following print left to right and top to bottom through the use of Sentence Frames and stories printed on chart paper. Teachers are not instructed to specifically discuss spacing between words. Instruction in all concepts of print are not sufficiently and explicitly taught. The program does not provide opportunities for students to interact meaningfully with books or to identify, practice, and/or reinforce print concepts to books. Materials do not include explicit instruction about the organization of print concepts in the context of a book. Book titles are suggested in the Teacher's Manual for Storytime activities, but the books are not provided to teachers or students. There are opportunities for the teacher and students to review previously learned letter names and letter formation.
Materials do not include sufficient and explicit instruction for all students about the organization of print concepts (e.g., follow words left to right, spoken words correlate to sequences of letters, letter spacing) include:
- In the Level K Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 1, Week 1, Day 4, page 70, Word Play activity, Word Awareness does not include explicit instruction on left to right orientation. The orientation is only implied by the visual of the Sentence Frames for the posted sentence.
- In the Level K Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 4, Week 1, Day 4, page 309, Trick Word Practice, left to right progression is not intentionally taught. It is used with the sentence frames and word scooping in the sentence resource.
Examples of materials include some lessons, tasks, and questions for all students about the organization of print concepts (e.g., follow words left to right, spoken words correlate to sequences of letters, letter spacing) include:
- In the Level K Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 5, Week 1, Day 1, Introduce New Concepts, page 349, the teacher posts a sentence. The teacher uses Baby Echo to point to the words while reading the sentence. The teacher discusses the capital letter at the beginning of the sentence and the period at the end. The teacher posts a different sentence with an exclamation point and discusses the exclamation point.
- In the Level K, Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 5, Week 2, Day 2, Teach Trick Words, page 361, the teacher writes the dictated sentence (Of course, I love you!) on the Sentence Frame. The teacher discusses capitalization and punctuation.
Materials do not include sufficient and explicit instruction about the organization of print concepts (e.g,. follow words left to right, spoken words correlate to sequences of letters, letter spacing) in the context of a book.
- Print concept instruction is limited to identification of the front and back cover and the terms title, author and illustrator.
- In the Level K Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 3, Week 5, Day 5, page 285, Storytime, the manual suggests titles of picture books for the teacher, but those books are not provided to teachers. Before reading a picture book, teachers are directed to look at the front and back cover of the book with the students. The teacher is directed to discuss the terms title, author, and illustrator.
Examples of materials contain some periodic cumulative review opportunities during which the teacher reminds students about previously learned grade-level print concepts, letter identification, and letter formation include:
- In the Level K Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 1, Week 5, Day 2, page 107, Echo/Letter Formation, the teacher dictates new sounds and a selection of previously taught sounds. The teacher says the sound, and the students echo the sound and say the letter.
- In the Level K Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 2, Week 1, Day 1, page 191, Sky Write/Letter Formation, teachers are directed to review letter formation for 5 to 6 letters students have learned. Selected students trace the letters in the Large Letter Formation Grid while the other students sky write.
- In the Level K Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 2, Week 4, Day 2, page 223, Echo/Letter Formation, students practice writing learned letters on Dry Erase Writing Tablets. They repeat sound and letter name. After they form each letter, they repeat letter-keyword-sound.
Examples of materials include some practice of previously learned print concepts, letter identification, and letter formation include:
- In the Level K Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 1, Week 5, Day 2, page 107, Echo/Letter Formation, students write the letter on their dry erase writing as the teacher directs them with the letter formation verbalization. Sounds include new sounds, /ă/ and /g/, as well as previously taught sounds, /t/, /b/, /f/, /n/, /m/, /ī/, /ŭ/, /c/, /ŏ/.
- In the Level K Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 3, Week 2, Day 2, Drill Sounds/Warm-Up, the students echo back to the teacher the review consonants from the Large Sound Cards.
Criterion 1.2: Phonological Awareness
Materials emphasize explicit, systematic instruction of research-based and/or evidence-based phonological awareness.
The instructional materials reviewed for Kindergarten partially meet the criteria for materials provide explicit instruction in phonological awareness through systematic modeling and student practice opportunities. Materials provide limited phonemic and phonological awareness modeling, practice, and review for students to learn to distinguish and manipulate sounds orally (i.e., recognizing/producing rhyming words, counting/producing/blending/segmenting syllables, blending/segmenting of onsets and rimes) before connecting the sounds and patterns to printed materials as a part of phonics instruction.
Indicator 1c
Materials have frequent opportunities for students to engage in phonological awareness activities during Kindergarten and early Grade 1.
The materials reviewed for Kindergarten partially meet the criteria for materials have frequent opportunities for students to engage in phonological awareness activities through Kindergarten and early 1st grade.
The Level K Fundations materials provide limited regular practice of phonemic awareness skills for phonological awareness during the daily lessons. There is no recommended time allocated for phonemic and phonological awareness in the daily lesson plans. There is a limited emphasis for students to recognize and produce rhyming words; count, pronounce, blend, and segment syllables in spoken words; blend and segment onsets and rimes of single-syllable spoken words. Oral language activities are infrequent with little variety. Oral language exercises are accompanied by grapheme or word visualizations. In the Fundations Home Support Pack K Second Edition, there are a variety of oral language activities provided for parents/guardians to do at home; however, those phonological awareness activities are not emphasized in the 30 minutes of instruction at school.
Examples of oral activities that are admixed with elements of phonics or are missed across the continuum of phonological awareness include:
- In the Level K Fundations Teacher's Manual, daily plans for Unit 1, Week 1, pages 64-73, there is only one phonological awareness activity on Day 3, Make It Fun page 68. It challenges students to identify words that start with the currently taught sounds of /b/, /f/, /t/.
- In the Level K Fundations Teacher's Manual, daily lesson plans for Unit 1, Week 2, pages 76-83, there are no activities where phonological awareness is addressed.
- In the Level K Fundations Teacher's Manual, Units 1-5, Drill Sounds/Warm-Up, students practice letter phoneme sounds in a call and response fashion led by the teacher. The teacher shows Large Sound Card and models the letter-keyword-sound combination for the letter. The students echo the letter-keyword-sound back to the teacher. Letters are added through the year after they are explicitly taught.
- In the Fundations Home Support Pack K Second Edition, there are a variety of oral language activities. In Unit 3, Weeks 1-6, there are six words provided for each week to allow students at-home practice with blending. An example and explicit instructions are provided.
Indicator 1d
Materials provide explicit instruction in phonological awareness through systematic modeling across the K-1 grade band.
The materials reviewed for Kindergarten partially meet the criteria for materials provide explicit instruction in phonological awareness through systematic modeling across the K-1 grade band.
Phonological awareness concepts with systematic modeling include isolating and pronouncing the initial, medial vowel, and final sounds in three phoneme words. There is insufficient emphasis, through systematic modeling, in the following areas of phonological awareness: recognize and produce rhyming words; count, pronounce, blend, and segment syllables in spoken words. Explicit instruction is provided by the teacher for segmenting and blending phonemes into words by utilizing finger tapping starting in Unit 3, Week 1, during Echo Words, but the teacher immediately utilizes Standard Sound Cards. A Drill Sounds/Warm-Up Activity is included in each lesson, which includes systematic modeling and practice of all previously introduced sounds. This is an activity involving the teacher or a selected student pointing to the letter and making the phoneme for students to echo. This daily review includes elements of phonics. Instruction for students to segment a spoken word into phonemes in isolation occurs. Manipulation of the beginning sounds of words is addressed, although not explicitly, through the use of creating words with Standard Sound Cards, changing the beginning consonant card, and producing a new word.
Materials provide the teacher with limited systematic, explicit instruction in syllables, sounds (phonemes), and spoken words. Examples include:
- Recognize and produce rhyming words.
- In the Level K Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 1, Week 5, Make It Fun, page 108, Rhyme Time, the teacher tells students the activity will help them rhyme words. The teacher says three words that rhyme, and students name another word. Six rhymes are included.
- In the Level K Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 1, Week 6, Storytime, page 122, the teacher is to find and read aloud a rhyming picture book to students.
- Count, pronounce, blend, and segment syllables in spoken words.
- In the Level K Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 1, Week 4, Word Play, page 100, syllable count activity, the teacher says a word, and students echo the word. Students put their hands on their chin to “feel” the syllables. Students then clap the syllables. The teacher asks how many syllables are in the word. The teacher writes the word on the syllable frames, one syllable per frame. The teacher reads the word, pointing to each syllable. The teacher counts the frames and tells the students whether they were correct.
- Blend and segment onsets and rimes of single-syllable spoken words.
- In the Level K Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 1, Week 9, Day 3, Make It Fun, the teacher asks students to listen to the end of the word. The teacher is to emphasize the last sound in the word map.
- In the Level K Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 3, Week 1, Day 2, Word Play, Listen for Sounds, the teacher states mad. The teacher segments the sounds, /m/ /a/ /d/.
- In the Level K Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 3, Week 2, Dictation (Dry Erase), the teacher taps unit words with students before students write the words.
- Isolate and pronounce the initial, medial vowel, and final sounds (phonemes) in three-phoneme (consonant-vowel-consonant, CVC) words.
- In the Level K Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 2, Week 1, Day 4, Make It Fun, page 196, the teacher says, “I am going to say three sounds. Listen and see if you can guess the word.” The teacher taps words such as sit, fog, sip, nut.
- In the Level K Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 2, Week 3, Day 4, Make It Fun, page 196, the teacher says, “I am going to say three sounds. Listen and see if you can guess the word.” The teacher taps words such as tub, cap, mix.
- Add or substitute individual sounds (phonemes) in simple, one-syllable words to make new words. Most activities include Sound Cards, so the task is not isolated to phonemic awareness.
- In the Level K Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 2, Week 2, Make It Fun, page 108, Let's Rhyme, the teacher tells students the activity will help students begin to manipulate sounds with rhyming patterns. The activity requires the use of Standard Sounds Cards, so the activity is not phonemic awareness solely. The teacher builds cat. The teacher removes the c and replaces it with b.
- In the Level K Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 2, Week 3, Word Play, page 210, the teacher builds mat and changes initial consonants, vowels, and final consonants to form new words: mat, cat, bat, bag, bug, mug.
Materials provide the teacher with some examples for instruction in syllables, sounds (phonemes), and spoken words called for in grade-level standards.
- In the Professional Learning Community (PLC), Level K Sound Demonstrations, the teacher is provided with sound demonstrations for the consonants, short vowel sounds, and the digraphs (wh, ch, sh, th, ck).
- In the PLC, Level K Activity Demonstration Videos, Level K Dictation Dry Erase (Sounds), the teacher is provided with a video demonstration for stating a phoneme and having students echo the phoneme.
- In the PLC, Level K Activity Demonstrations Videos, Level K Dry Erase (Words), the teacher is provided with a video demonstration for stating a word and segmenting the word with tapping the word.
Indicator 1e
Materials provide practice of each newly taught sound (phoneme) and sound pattern across the K-1 band.
The materials reviewed for Kindergarten partially meet the criteria for materials provide practice of each newly taught sound (phoneme) and sound pattern across the K-1 band.
Phonological awareness concepts with student practice include isolating and pronouncing the initial, medial vowel, and final sounds in three phoneme words. There are missing opportunities for repeated student practice in the following areas of phonological awareness: recognize and produce rhyming words; count, pronounce, blend, and segment syllables in spoken words. Practice for blending phonemes into words is provided starting in Unit 3, Week 1 during Echo Words. A Drill Sounds/Warm-Up Activity is included in each lesson, which includes systematic practice of previously introduced sounds. This is an activity which involves pointing to the letter and making the phoneme for students to echo. This daily review includes elements of phonics. Manipulation of the beginning sounds of words is addressed, although not explicitly, through the use of creating words with Standard Sound Cards, changing the beginning consonant card, and producing a new word. The instruction includes a multi-sensory method of blending words. This is finger-tapping.
Materials provide limited opportunities for students to practice each new sound and sound pattern called for in grade-level standards.
- Recognize and produce rhyming words.
- In the Level K Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 1, Week 5, Make It Fun, page 108, Rhyme Time, the teacher tells students the activity will help them rhyme words. The teacher says three words that rhyme, and students name another word. Six rhymes are included.
- In the Level K Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 1, Week 6, Storytime, page 122, the teacher finds and reads aloud a rhyming picture book to students. During the third reading of the book, students are supposed to say the rhyming words instead of the teacher.
- Count, pronounce, blend, and segment syllables in spoken words.
- In the Level K Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 1, Week 5, Day 4, Word Play, Syllable Play, the teacher states a word and students repeat. Students clap out the syllables.
- Blend and segment onsets and rimes of single-syllable spoken words.
- In the Level K Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 3, Week 1, Day 2, Word Play, Listen for Sounds, the teacher states mad. The teacher segments the sounds, /m/ /a/ /d/. Students state the following words, segment the sounds, and blend the words: made, hope, hop, pin, pine, coat, cot.
- In the Level K Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 3, Week 2, Day 2, Word Play, Listen for Sounds, the teacher states mad. The teacher segments the sounds, /m/ /a/ /d/. Students state the following words, segment the sounds, and blend the word: bait, bat, mop, mope, sight, sit, cap, cape.
- In the Level K Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 3, Week 3, Day 4, Make It Fun, page 263, the teacher dictates a word. Students echo and tap the word out.
- In the Level K Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 3, Week 5, Make It Fun, page 283, the teacher whispers a word segmented to a student. The student repeats the segments.
- Isolate and pronounce the initial, medial vowel, and final sounds (phonemes) in three-phoneme (consonant-vowel-consonant, CVC) words.
- In the Level K Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 2, Week 1, Day 4, Make It Fun, page 196, the teacher says, “I am going to say three sounds. Listen and see if you can guess the word.” The teacher taps words such as sit, fog, sip, nut. Sometimes the students participate with the teacher (“Do some all together and then call on individual students.”).
- Level K Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 3, Week 6, Word Play, Listen for Sounds, the teacher states mad. The teacher segments the sounds, /m/ /a/ /d/ and for made. Students say sounds for the words as well as for kit, kite, rate, rat, lead, led.
- Add or substitute individual sounds (phonemes) in simple, one-syllable words to make new words.
- In the Level K Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 2, Week 2, Make It Fun, page 108, Let's Rhyme, the teacher tells students the activity will help students begin to manipulate sounds with rhyming patterns. The activity requires the use of Standard Sounds Cards, so the the activity is not phonemic awareness solely. The teacher builds cat. The teacher removes the c and replaces it with b. Students watch the teacher.
- In the Level K Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 2, Week 3, Word Play, page 210, the teacher builds mat and changes initial consonants, vowels, and final consonants to form new words: mat, cat, bat, bag, bug, mug. The teacher builds and changes the words. Students watch the teacher.
Materials include a variety of multimodal/multi-sensory activities for student practice of phonological awareness.
- In the Level K Fundations Teacher's Manual, Skills Taught in Fundations, Phonics, page 4, it states, “Students learn how to blend words with the finger-tapping procedure used so successfully in the Wilson Reading System. For example, to blend the sounds /m/ /a/ /t/ into a word, students are taught how to say each sounds as they tap a finger to their thumb.”
- In the Level K Fundations Teacher's Manual, Learning Activity Overview, Echo/Find Words, the teacher states a word and says, “Elbows up. Let’s tap ___. Students tap the sounds of the word with the teacher.
- In the Level K Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 3, Week 3, Day 3, Dictation (Dry Erase), the teacher dictates a word. Students tap and spell the word before writing.
- In the Level K Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 3, Week 1, page 239, it directs teachers with advanced kindergarten students to use the PLC activity found in the Resources, called Vowel Pop-Up to provide additional work on recognizing the long vowel sounds.This multi-sensory activity involves hearing, saying, doing (pop-up).
Criterion 1.3: Phonics
This criterion is non-negotiable. Materials must achieve a specified minimum score in this criterion to advance to the next gateway.
Materials emphasize explicit, systematic instruction of research-based and/or evidence-based phonics.
The instructional materials reviewed for Kindergarten include frequent opportunities for students to engage with common and newly-taught sound and spelling patterns, including opportunities to decode and encode words through building, manipulation and spelling and to review previously taught phonics skills. Application opportunities for decoding phonetically-regular words are not evenly distributed across the program. The materials also lack systematic and repeated modeling that may be necessary for some students to achieve mastery of long vowel sounds.
Indicator 1f
Materials emphasize explicit phonics instruction through systematic and repeated modeling.
The materials reviewed for Kindergarten partially meet the criteria for the expectation that materials emphasize phonics instruction through systematic and repeated modeling.
The Fundations Level K materials provide ample opportunities for teacher modeling and student practice of most phonics skills. The opportunities for students to individually read each letter (grapheme) or spelling pattern and its associated sound (phoneme) individually are limited. Letter/sound association is taught explicitly over the course of 12 weeks in Unit 1 with opportunities for students to hear, say, write, and read. The spelling of short vowel phonemes is explicitly taught in Unit 1 and reviewed throughout the materials. The association of spelling of the long vowels is briefly discussed, but not explicitly taught. Listening for Sounds activities provide opportunities for students to distinguish similarly spelled words by identifying the sounds.
Materials contain explicit instructions for systematic and repeated teacher modeling of all grade-level phonics standards: For example:
- Demonstrate basic knowledge of letter-sound correspondences by producing the primary or most frequent sound for each consonant.
- In the Level K Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 1, Weeks 1-12, the teacher teaches the graphemes and phonemes for: /t/, /b/, /f/, /n/, /m/, short /i/, /u/, /c/, short /o/, short /a/, /g/, /d/, /s/, short /e/, /r/, /p/, /j/, /l/, /h/, /k/, /v/, /w/, /y/, /ks, /z/, /kw/.
- In the daily Drill Sounds/Warm-Up, students learn the 26 graphemes and phonemes when the teacher states and shows the associations with Large Sound Cards, Standard Sound Cards, and Vowel Extension. Students echo the teacher.
- In the Level K Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 4, Week 1, Day 1, pages 302-303, Introduce New Concepts, students are introduced to the digraphs wh, ch, sh, th, and ck. The teacher models using Large Sound Cards, students repeat the letters, keyword, and sound. This is then repeated with the Standard Sound Cards. Students are taught that digraphs get one tap when blending sounds in CVC words. Students practice underlining the digraphs in words. In Student Notebooks, they trace and say digraph graphemes/sounds and color the keyword pictures.
- Associate the long and short sounds with common spellings (graphemes) for the five major vowels.
- In the Level K Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 1, Weeks 1-12, the teacher teaches the short vowels during daily Drill Sounds/Warm-Up.
- Distinguish between similarly spelled words by identifying the sounds of the letters that differ.
- In the Level K Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 3, Week 4, Echo/Find Letters & Words, page 267, the teacher builds wax with Standard Sound Cards. The teacher points to x and asks “What does this letter say?” The teacher explains that it might be tricky to spell because x sounds like a k and a s, but it is spelled with x.
- In the Level K Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 3, Week 5, Introduce New Concepts, page 277, the teacher asks, “What says /k/?” The teacher tells students they will learn about when to use k and when to use c at the beginning of a word because both say /k/. The teacher explains a, o, or u follows c. The teacher builds cat, cot, and cut to demonstrate. The teacher explains e or i follows k. The teacher builds kit and kid.
Lessons provide teachers with systematic and repeated instruction for students to hear, say, encode, and read each newly taught grade-level phonics pattern. Examples include:
- In the Level K Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 1, Week 5, Day 2, Echo/Letter Formation, page 107, the teacher dictates new sounds and a selection of previously taught sounds. The teacher says the sound, and students echo the sound and say the letter. Students make the letter on the Large Letter Formation Grid while the teacher directs with the letter formation verbalization. All students write the letter on their Dry Erase Writing Tablets as the teacher directs them using the letter formation verbalization.
- In the Level K Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 1, Week 9, Day 4, page 150, Drill Sounds/Warm-Up, the teacher reviews new sounds and 4-5 previously learned consonant sounds. The teacher models letter-keyword-sound with Large Sound Cards, and students echo. Students repeat letter-keyword-sound with Standard Sound Cards. A student traces a line to extend the vowel sound to the keyword picture during the Vowel Extension activity.
- In the Level K Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 3, Week 2, Day 5, Word Play, page 254, the teacher uses Standard Sound Cards to display unit words. The teacher makes each word, says, and taps each sound. Students tap with the teacher. The teacher then blends the sounds as he/she drags a thumb across their fingers. The teacher then points under each card, says each sound, and drags finger under all three cards while blending the sounds to read the word. The students echo the teacher as the teacher points to each Standard Sound Card.
- In the Level K Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 4, Week 2, Day 2, Teach Trick Words, page 315, the teacher writes a sentence on the frames. The teacher scoops the sentence into phrases, reads it, and has students echo the sentence.
Indicator 1g
Materials include frequent practice opportunities for students to decode words that consist of common and newly-taught sound and spelling patterns and provide opportunities for students to review previously taught phonics skills.
The materials reviewed for Kindergarten meet the criteria for materials include frequent practice opportunities for students to decode words that consist of common and newly-taught sound and spelling patterns and provide opportunities for students to review previously taught phonics skills.
The Fundations Level K materials provide opportunities to decode grade-level phonics. Decoding begins in Week 13. Once decoding is introduced, students are provided frequent practice opportunities. Students tap and blend sounds to read a word. Instruction is limited to teacher-centered activities with students echoing or repeating. The Level K Fundations materials include daily Drill Sounds/Warm-Up Learning Activity for students to review sounds selected by the teacher, allowing students to have daily opportunities to review letters and sounds. Previously taught grade-level phonics skills are reviewed through Letter-Keyword-Sound, Drill Sounds/Warm-up, Sky Write/Letter Formation, Echo/Letter formation, Student Notebook, and Echo/Find letters.
Lessons provide students with frequent opportunities to decode (phonemes, onset and rime, and/or syllables) phonetically spelled words. Examples include:
- In the Level K Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 2, Week 1, Day 1, Introduce New Concepts, page 190, students are taught how to blend words with three sounds by tapping out the word using the sounds. Students are instructed to say each sound separately, and then blend the sounds together.
- In the Level K Teacher's Manual, Unit 3, Week 3, Day 4, Dictation (Dry Erase), page 263, students tap and orally spell dictated words before writing. Next, students spell the word chorally. One student then writes the word on the Large Letter Formation Grid, and all students write dictated words on their Dry Erase Writing Tablets.
- In the Level K Fundations, Home Support Pack, Unit 3, Weeks 1-6, page 85, the letter to parents explains that the child should find the letters to make the given word. Parents later write the word on the line, and students find the letters to spell the word and place in the given boxes. Students then tap the sounds and read the word.
Lessons provide students with some opportunities to read complete words by saying the entire word as a unit using newly taught phonics skills. Examples include:
- In the Level K Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 2, Week 1, Day 5, Word Play, the teacher uses Standard Sound Cards to display unit words. The teacher makes each word and states and taps each sound. Students tap with the teacher. The teacher blends the word and drags the thumb across the fingers to show blending. The teacher says the entire word. Students practice saying each sound with the teacher and blending the sounds together.
- In the Level K Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 3, Week 3, Day 1, Word Play, page 256, the teacher uses Standard Sound Cards to display 5-6 Unit Words. The teacher makes each word and states and taps each sound. Students tap with the teacher. The teacher blends the word and drags the thumb across the fingers to show blending. The teacher says the entire word. Students practice saying each sound with the teacher and blending the sounds together.
- In the Level K Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 4, Week 4, Day 4, Word Play, page 338, the teacher uses Standard Sound Cards to display 5-6 Unit Words. The teacher makes each word and states and taps each sound. Students tap with the teacher. The teacher blends the word and drags the thumb across the fingers to show blending. The teacher says the entire word. Students practice saying each sound with the teacher and blending the sounds together. The teacher makes 3-5 nonsense words, and students tap and read them.
Materials contain some opportunities for students to review previously learned grade-level phonics. For example:
- In the Level K Teacher's Manual, Learning Activity Overview, Drill Sounds/Warm Up, page 30-31, it explains that every lesson starts with a quick warm-up sound drill. This activity helps students master the Alphabetic Principle of letter-sound associations.
- In the Level K Teacher's Manual, starting in Unit 1, Week 1, Day 2, the students practice phonics during daily Drill Sounds/Warm-Up. The teacher uses Large Sound Cards and Standard Sound Cards to review letter-keyword-sound, and students echo.
Materials contain a variety of methods to promote students’ practice of previously taught grade-level phonics. Examples include:
- In the Level K Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 1, Week 9, Day 3, Drill Sounds/Warm-Up, page 148, the teacher selects new sounds and vowel sounds everyday as well as 4-5 other consonants using the following materials: Large Sound Cards, Standard Sound Cards, and Vowel Extension.
- In the Level K Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 3, Week 6, Day 4, Make It Fun, page 293, students are each provided one Standard Sound Card. The teacher dictates a word such as map. Students echo and tap the word. Students then, holding the needed Standard Sound Card, make the word in front of the class. Students spell the word. This is repeated with several words.
- In the Level K Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 5, Week 5, Day 2, Word Play, page 390, students are informed they can blend sounds together to make silly or nonsense words. The teacher then makes 3-5 nonsense words from the Resource List and the students tap and read.
Indicator 1h
Materials provide frequent opportunities for students to practice decoding phonetically regular words in a sentence.
The materials reviewed for Kindergarten partially meet the criteria for materials promote frequent opportunities for students to practice decoding phonetically regular words in a sentence.
The Level K Fundations materials provide some opportunities for students to decode phonetically regular words in a sentence based on grade-level phonics. Students read some sentences, usually repeating what the teacher says first, often when practicing trick words or dictation sentences where students both decode and encode. Sentence reading begins in Unit 3 during Trick Word activities and students echo, not read, the sentences; there is no decoding. In Unit 4, there are four Word Play activities and one Storytime activity that include decoding words in sentences but there is no individual practice. Unit 5 includes multiple activities for sentence reading. Opportunities are missed for students to individually practice decoding words in a sentence. In the Learning Activities, the teacher typically states the sentence and students repeat the sentence.
Materials provide explicit, systematic practice for decoding phonetically regular words in a sentence. Examples include:
- In the Level K Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 4, Week 3, Day 3, Word Play, page 326, the teacher is directed to write two sentences on Sentence Frames and scoop into phrases. A student is chosen to circle the trick words and tap out other words. The sentence is read together as the teacher models fluency by scooping into phrases. A student is then selected to read the sentence, and the class repeats.
- In the Level K Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 5, Week 1, Day 1, Introduce New Concepts, page 349, the teacher writes the sentence Meg is sad. on the board. The teacher helps the students to tap out Meg and sad. The word “is" is not tapped out since it is a trick word. Using the Baby Echo pointer, the teacher points to the words and reads the sentence. This is repeated for three more sentences.
- In the Level K Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 5, Week 6, Day 2, Teach Trick Words, page 201, the teacher states the sentence, Here is one pencil. Students repeat the sentence. A student places the Sentence Frames. The teacher writes the sentence on the frames and reads the sentence. Students repeat the sentence.
Examples of limited student practice of decoding phonetically regular words in a sentence include:
- In the Level K Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 3, Week 6, Day 5, Teach Trick Words, page 295, the teacher states a sentence, The kids went to the playground. Students repeat the sentence. A student places the Sentence Frames. The teacher writes the sentence on the frames and reads the sentence. Students repeat the sentence.
- In the Level K Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 5, Week 2, Day 3, Word Play, page 362, the teacher uses Standard Sound Cards to make three to five unit words. After the teacher blends and reads words with the students, the teacher is directed to write a sentence on the board and scoop it into phrases. Students are to try to read each word to themselves and then the teacher calls on a student. After each word is decoded, the sentence is chorally read. The teacher is instructed to do two to three sentences.
- In the Level K Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 5, Week 3, Day 4, Trick Word Practice, page 374, the teacher states a sentence: The book is from Meg. Students echo the sentence. The teacher writes the sentence on Sentence Frames. The teacher reads the sentence. and students echo the sentence.
Indicator 1i
Materials include frequent practice opportunities for students to build/manipulate/spell and encode grade-level phonics, including common and newly-taught sound and sound patterns.
The materials reviewed for Kindergarten meet the criteria for materials include frequent practice opportunities for students to build/manipulate/spell and encode grade-level phonics, including common and newly-taught sounds and sound patterns.
The Level K Fundations materials include opportunities for students to encode in activities and tasks. Building/manipulating/spelling and encoding is often modeled by the teacher during Introduce New Concepts and Word Play. Students practice encoding using a dry erase tablet or using their letter tiles during Dictation and Echo/Find Letters & Words. Encoding activities include writing on the Dry Erase Writing Tablet, the Large Letter Formation Grid, the Student Notebook, and the Fundations Letter Board and Magnetic Letter Tiles.
The materials contain teacher-level instruction and modeling for building/manipulating/spelling and encoding words using common and newly-taught sounds and spelling patterns grade- level phonics. Examples include:
- In the Level K Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 2, Week 1, Day 1, Introduce New Concepts, the teacher shows students how to blend words through tapping based on the Standard Sound Cards displayed. The teacher builds mat, map, mad, sad, sat, sap with Standard Sound Cards and shows students how to blend the sounds based on the built words.
- In the Level K Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 3, Week 1, Day 1, Introduce New Concepts, the teacher builds 8-10 words with the Standard Sound Cards. The teacher models tapping the sounds corresponding to the Standard Sound Cards. The teacher models changing one letter and sound with the Standard Sound Cards. The teacher models changing map to mat to cat to bat to bag to bug to mug.
- In the Level K Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 4, Week 1, Day 1, Introduce New Concepts, the teacher uses the Standard Sound Cards to make a word with a digraph, mash. The teacher models how to read the letter sounds in the word. The teacher models building and reading other words with digraphs such as ship, chop, duck.
Lessons provide students with daily opportunities to build/manipulate/spell and encode words using common and newly-taught sound and spelling patterns grade-level phonics. Examples include:
- In the Level K Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 3, Week 2, Day 2, Echo/Find Letters and Words, page 249, the teacher dictates a word. Students repeat the word and tap it out. Students make the word with their letter tiles. A student volunteer models using the teacher’s Standard Sound Cards.
- In the Level K Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 4, Week 4, Day 3, Dictation (Dry Erase), page 337, the teacher dictates unit words for students to write on their Dry Erase Writing Tablets. The teacher says the word, students tap and spell chorally before writing on their Dry Erase Writing Tablets. One student models using the Large Letter Formation Grid.
- In the Level K Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 5, Week 6, Day 2, Echo/Find Letters & Words, the teacher dictates 3-5 unit words (CVC words and words with digraphs). Students find the Letter Tiles to make the words on their Letter Tile Boards. One student makes the word(s) using the Standard Sound Cards. Students orally spell the word and replace the tiles.
Indicator 1j
Materials provide application and encoding of phonics in activities and tasks. (mid K-Grade 2)
The materials reviewed for Kindergarten meet the criteria for materials promote application and encoding of phonics in activities and tasks.
The Level K Fundations materials include opportunities for students to encode in activities and tasks. Encoding of phonics in writing tasks or sentences is modeled by the teacher during Teach Trick Words (starting in Unit 3) and Word Play. The focus of Word Play sentences in the beginning of the year is to understand that sentences have separate words and words have separate syllables rather than to model or practice encoding of phonics. Starting in the last Unit (Unit 5, Week 4), students practice encoding in writing tasks and sentences using a Dry Erase Writing Tablet.
Materials include explicit, systematic teacher-level instruction of teacher modeling that demonstrates the use of phonics to encode sounds to letters and words in writing tasks. Examples include:
- In the Level K Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 5, Week 4, Day 1, Introduce New Concepts, the teacher states a sentence. The students repeat the sentence. The teacher models writing the sentence on Sentence Frames.
Lessons provide students with activities and tasks to promote application of phonics as they encode words in sentences or in phrases based on common and newly taught grade level phonics patterns. Examples include:
- In the Level K Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 5, Week 4, Day 3, Dictation (Dry Erase), page 393, the teacher dictates one sentence from the Unit Resources. The teacher uses the Sentence Frames and dictates the sentence. Students echo and one student places the Sentence Frames and circles the frame with the Trick Word. All students write the sentence on their Dry Erase Writing Tablets. One student writes the sentence on the Sentence Frames.
- In the Level K Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 5, Week 5, Day 3, Dictation (Dry Erase), page 393, the teacher dictates one sentence from the Unit Resources. The teacher uses the Sentence Frames and dictates the sentence. Students echo and one student places the Sentence Frames and circles the frame with the Trick Word. All students write the sentence on their Dry Erase Writing Tablets. One student writes the sentence on the Sentence Frames.
- In the Level K Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 5, Week 6, Day 4, Dictation (Dry Erase), page 405, the teacher dictates one sentence from the Unit Resources. The teacher uses the Sentence Frames and dictates the sentence. Students echo and one student places Sentence Frames and circles the frame with the Trick Word. All students write the sentence on their Dry Erase Writing Tablets. One student writes the sentence on the Sentence Frames.
Criterion 1.4: Word Recognition and Word Analysis
Materials and instruction support students in learning and practicing regularly and irregularly spelled high-frequency words.
The instructional materials reviewed for Kindergarten partially meet the criteria for materials include systematic instruction of high-frequency words and practice opportunities of high-frequency words to develop automaticity. While the instructional materials reviewed for Kindergarten do provide systematic instruction of high-frequency words and opportunities to practice reading of high-frequency words to develop automaticity, the number of words included may not be sufficient for students to be prepared for the next grade level. Additionally, there are not consistent opportunities for all students to read and write high-frequency words in tasks. Materials provide explicit instruction and frequent practice of word analysis and word-solving strategies, however opportunities are missed for students to learn how to analyze vowel sounds.
Indicator 1k
Materials include systematic instruction of high-frequency words and opportunities to practice reading of high-frequency words to develop automaticity.
The materials reviewed for Kindergarten partially meet the criteria for materials include systematic instruction of high-frequency words and practice opportunities of high-frequency words to develop automaticity.
In the Level K Fundations, high-frequency words are called Trick Words. The Kindergarten materials address 27 high-frequency words throughout the year. Words are selected from the Fry and American Heritage Word Frequency Lists. The 27 Trick Words covered along with emerging phonetic knowledge will address 75% of the first 50 words on the Fry and American Heritage Word Frequency Book lists. Students do not begin learning high-frequency words until Unit 3, which is 18 weeks into the school year. The materials do not address a sufficient quantity of high-frequency words to make adequate reading progress toward becoming an independent reader. The procedure for teaching Trick Words is provided in the Learning Activity overview. During the Learning Activity, the teacher reads and writes the Trick Word(s) on sentence frames in sentences. During practice opportunities, students identify and read the Trick Word Flashcards after the teacher always states the Trick Word before having students identify the word.
Examples of materials include systematic and explicit instruction of high-frequency words (e.g., the, of, to, you, she, my, is, are, do, does) include:
- In the Level K Fundations Teacher's Manual, Learning Activity Overview, page 44, the procedure for teaching Trick Words is outlined. The teacher dictates the provided sentence and has students repeat the sentence. Students are asked to find and arrange the appropriate Sentence Frames. The teacher says the sentence again, writing each word on each Sentence Frame while saying it. The new Trick Word is circled. The teacher slowly reads the sentence, pointing to each word. Students are asked to say the new Trick Word. The corresponding Trick Word Flashcard is shown. The Trick Word Flashcards pack is then presented for students to read.
- In the Level K Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 3, Week 2, Day 3, Teach Trick Words, page 250, the first Trick Words are introduced to students (the, a). The teacher says the given sentence, and students repeat. Students place the Sentence Frames, as needed. The teacher writes the sentence on the frames and discusses capitalization and punctuation. The teacher scoops the sentence into phrases, reads it, and students echo. The teacher circles the new Trick Word (the) and asks students to listen to the sentence read aloud and see if the students can tell the teacher the word they circled. The teacher changes the word the to a and explains that the and a are words the students are going to practice and that these words are called Trick Words because they can be tricky. Students are shown the Trick Word Flashcards the and a. The teacher says the words while showing the card, and students repeat. The teacher tells students that a is a letter, but can a be a Trick Word.
Examples of materials include opportunities for the teacher to model the spelling and reading of high-frequency words in isolation include:
- In the Level K Fundations, Unit 3, Week 6, Day 3, Teach Trick Words, page 290, the teacher writes the Trick Word was on a Sentence Frame, which is part of a sentence. The teacher shows students the Trick Word Flashcard and reads the word to students.
- In the Level K Fundations, Unit 4, Week 3, Day 2, Teach Trick Words, page 325, the teacher writes the Trick Words I and you on Sentence Frames, which are part of a sentence. The teacher shows students the Trick Word Flashcards and reads the words to students.
- In the Level K Fundations, Unit 5, Week 5, Day 2, Teach Trick Words, page 391, the teacher writes the Trick Word do on a Sentence Frame, which is part of a sentence. The teacher shows students the Trick Word Flashcard and reads the word to students.
Examples of students practice identifying and reading high-frequency words in isolation:
- In the Level K Fundations, Unit 3, Week 2, Day 5, Trick Word Practice, page 255, the teacher presents the Trick Word Flashcards. The teacher states the words, and students repeat.
- In the Level K Fundations, Unit 4, Week 2, Day 4, Trick Word Practice, page 319, the teacher presents the Trick Word Flashcards. The teacher states the words, and students repeat.
- In the Level K Fundations, Unit 5, Week 4, Day 2, Teach Trick Words, page 381 the teacher presents the Trick Word Flashcards. The teacher states the words, and students repeat.
Materials include a limited quantity of grade-appropriate high-frequency words for students to make reading progress. In the Level K Fundations Teacher's Manual, Fundations Scope and Sequence, page 20, specific Trick Words taught in each unit are listed:
- Unit 3 (6 weeks): the, a, and, are, to, is his, as, has, was
- Unit 4 (4 weeks): we, she, he, be, my, I , you, they
- Unit 5 (6 weeks): or, for, of, have, from, by, my, do, one
Indicator 1l
Materials provide frequent practice opportunities to read and write high-frequency words in context (sentences).
The materials reviewed for Kindergarten partially meet the criteria for materials provide frequent practice opportunities to read and write high-frequency words in tasks (sentences).
The Level K Fundations materials include limited opportunities for students to read and write high-frequency words in tasks. During the Teach Trick Words and Trick Word Practice learning activities, the teacher reads the sentence to students, and students repeat (echo), therefore the teacher is reading the words in sentences to the students. Students do not have opportunities to read high-frequency words independently. Starting in Unit 5, students write dictated sentences that contain Trick Words. Also starting in Unit 5, students are encouraged to use their Student Notebooks to check the spelling of Trick Words.
Lessons provide students with some opportunities to read grade- level high-frequency words in a sentence. Sentences are read to students before students echo the teacher.
- In the Level K Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 3, Week 6, Day 5, Trick Word Practice, page 295, the teacher states each sentence (3 sentences), and students repeat. The teacher writes the sentence on the Sentence Frames, scoops into phrases, and reads aloud for students to echo. The teacher says the Trick Word and a student finds and circles the given Trick Word.
- In the Level K Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 4, Week 1, Day 4, Trick Word Practice, page 309, the teacher says each sentence (3 sentences) and students repeat. The teacher then writes the sentence on the Sentence Frames, scoops into phrases, and reads aloud for students to echo. The teacher says the trick word and a student finds and circles the given trick word.
- In the Level K Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 4, Week 2, Day 3, Word Play, Read Sentences, page 316, the teacher writes two sentences on the Sentence Frames and scoops into phrases. A student circles trick words and taps out other words. Students and the teacher read the sentences together, modeling fluency. The teacher selects a student to read the sentence, and students repeat.
Lessons provide students with limited opportunities to write grade-level high-frequency words in tasks (such as sentences) in order to promote automaticity in writing grade-appropriate high-frequency words. Opportunities to write Trick Words in sentences appears in the last three weeks of the materials.
- In the Level K Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 5, Week 4, Day 3, Dictation (Dry Erase), page 383, the teacher dictates a sentence. Students echo the sentence. One student places Sentence Frames on the board. The student circles the Trick Word. Students write the sentence on their Dry Erase Writing Tablets.
- In the Level K Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 5, Week 5, Day 1, Dictation (Dry Erase), page 389, the teacher dictates a sentence. Students echo the sentence. One student places Sentence Frames on the board. The student circles the Trick Word. Students write the sentence on their Dry Erase Writing Tablets.
- In the Level K Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 5, Week 6, Day 3, Dictation (Dry Erase, page 403, the teacher dictates a sentence. Students echo the sentence. One student places Sentence Frames on the board. The student circles the Trick Word. Students write the sentence on their Dry Erase Writing Tablets.
Materials provide limited explicit instruction in how to use student-friendly reference materials and resources and reading high-frequency words (e.g., word cards, word lists, word ladders, student dictionaries).
- In the Level K Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 5, Week 1, Day 2, Introduce New Concepts, page 351, the student begin sentence dictation. The teacher says a sentence, and students repeat. Sentence Frames are placed and the sentence is written on the frames, scooped, and read by the teacher. The teacher dictates changes, and a student makes the change to the Sentence Frame. If a Trick Word is changed, students are referred to their Student Notebooks to check the spelling.
- In the Level K Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 5, Week 2, Day 1, Word Play, p.age 358, the teacher dictates a sentence. The teacher writes the sentence on Sentence Frames. The teacher dictates changes, and a student makes the change to the Sentence Frame. If a Trick Word is changed, students are referred to their Student Notebooks to check the spelling.
- In the Level K Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 5, Week 4, Day 2, Word Play, page 381, the teacher dictates a sentence. A student writes each word on the Sentence Frames while the other students write the sentence on Dry Erase Tablets. The teacher reminds students to use their Student Notebooks to check the spelling of Trick Words.
Indicator 1m
Materials explicitly teach word analysis strategies (e.g., phoneme/grapheme recognition, syllabication, morpheme analysis) based on the requirements of the standards and provide students with frequent practice opportunities to apply word analysis strategies.
The materials reviewed for Kindergarten partially meet the criteria for materials explicitly teach word analysis strategies (e.g., phoneme/grapheme recognition, syllabication, morpheme analysis) based on the requirements of the standards and provide frequent practice opportunities for students to apply word analysis strategies.
The Level K Fundations materials provide opportunities for explicit word analysis strategies instruction directed by the teacher to the whole class. With teacher modeling and direction, students engage in opportunities to tap and blend words and manipulate letter tiles to form words. Students are taught to tap out sounds to decode unfamiliar words. Instruction on consonant letter/sounds and short vowel letter/sounds are evident with materials that provide cards in one color for consonant letters and one color for vowels. Students are provided opportunities to analyze long and short vowel phonemes, but not to analyze how the vowel sound also represents the vowel phonemes and grapheme. Students distinguish between the long and short vowel sounds in words when the teacher says two words; however, opportunities are missed to explain why the vowel makes a different sound. While students learn word analysis strategies, there are missed opportunities for students to independently practice and apply word analysis strategies over the course of the year.
Examples of materials contain frequent explicit instruction of word analysis strategies (e.g., phoneme/grapheme recognition, syllabication, morpheme analysis) include:
- In the Level K Fundations Teacher's Manual, Fundations Scope and Sequence, page 20, the unit breakdown outline indicates that letter-keyword-sound for consonants and short vowels are taught in Unit 1.
- In the Level K Teacher's Manual, Learning Activity Overview, Dictation/Words (Single Syllable Words) page 27, the tapping of sounds is explained. Teacher says, “mat”. Teacher says, “Elbows up. Let’s tap it /m/- /a/- /t/. Teacher says, “Who can spell mat?” Teacher says, “Write mat.” Teacher says, “Now let’s all spell mat m-a-t.” Teacher checks students’ work and says, “Read the words that you wrote today.”
- In the Fundations Level K Teacher's Manual, Unit 3, Week 1, Day 2, Listen for Sounds, page 239, students distinguish between the long a and short a sounds. Students identify the sounds in mad and made and tap out sounds. The teacher explains that vowel sounds are long and short and that when the vowel is short it is coded with a breve. The teacher demonstrates how to mark mad and uses a breve above the short a sound.
- In the Fundations Level K Teacher's Manual, Unit 4, Week 3, Day 1, Introduce New Concepts, page 322, students learn the three ways to make the /k/ sound and that ck is used only at the end of words right after the short vowel sound. Later in the lesson, students learn that even though c and k both say /k/, right after a short vowel they should always use ck.
Examples of materials contain frequent explicit instruction of word-solving strategies to decode unfamiliar words include:
- In the Fundations Level K Teacher's Manual, Unit 2, Week 4, Day 5, Word Play activity, page 228, the teacher uses Standard Sound Cards to make a word, say and tap each sound with the students tapping also, and then blends sounds to read the words.
- In the Fundations Level K Teacher's Manual, Unit 4, Week 1, Day 1, Introduce New Concepts, Teach Digraphs, page 298, the teacher explains that wh, ch, sh, th, and ck are consonants that stick together to form one sound even though there are two letters. Large Sound Cards are used to teach the sound. The teacher tells students these digraphs get one tap when tapping out the word. Students underline digraphs in words.
- In the Level K Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 5, Week 6, Day 3, Word Play, page 402, the teacher uses Standard Sound Cards to make three to five unit words located in the Unit Resources. After making each word, the teacher says and taps each sound with the students tapping also. The teacher blends sounds while dragging the thumb across the fingers. Next, the teacher points under the cards saying the sounds with the students to blend and read each word.
Examples of student opportunities to learn, practice and apply word analysis strategies include:
- In the Level K Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 1, Week 1, Day 1, Letter-Keyword Sound, page 64, the letter/keyword/sound b- bat - /b/ and f - fun - /f/ are introduced first with Large Sound Card, followed by students echoing, and then repeated with the Standard Sound Card.
- In the Level K Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 1, Week 9, Day 4, Drill Sounds/Warm-Up page 150, students see a letter and make the sound. There is systematic modeling and practice of new sounds and 4-5 previously learned sounds. Sounds are practiced with Large Sound Cards where the teacher models letter-keyword-sound, and students echo. Students provide letter-keyword-sound with Standard Sound Cards. The Vowel Extension activity has a student trace a line as they extend the vowel sound to the keyword picture.
- In the Level K Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 4, Week 1, Day 3, Make It Fun, Digraph Detectives, page 307, the teacher writes 10-15 words on the board, some with digraphs and some without digraphs. The teacher tells students they are digraph detectives, and they need to find all the digraphs and underline them. The teacher and students read the list of words together. Students are separated into groups of three and assigned a digraph. Students copy words with their digraph onto their Dry Erase Writing Tablets. A student from each group underlines the digraph in the word with their designated digraph.
- In the Level K Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 4, Week 3, Dictation, page 327, teacher dictates unit sounds and words for students to tap, orally spell, chorally spell. One student models on the Large Letter Formation Grid, and all students write on their Dry Erase Writing Tablets.
Criterion 1.5: Decoding Accuracy, Decoding Automaticity and Fluency
This criterion is non-negotiable. Materials must achieve a specified minimum score in this criterion to advance to the next gateway.
Materials provide systematic and explicit instruction and practice in fluency by focusing on accuracy and automaticity in decoding in K and 1, and rate, expression, and accuracy in mid-to-late 1st and 2nd grade. Materials for 2nd grade fluency practice should vary (decodables and grade-level texts).
The instructional materials reviewed for Kindergarten provide limited opportunities for students to practice decoding to develop accuracy and fluency and to read emergent-reader texts for purpose and understanding.
Indicator 1n
Materials provide opportunities for students to engage in decoding practice focused on accuracy and automaticity in K and Grade 1.
The materials reviewed for Kindergarten partially meet the criteria for materials provide opportunities for students to engage in decoding practice focused on accuracy and automaticity in K and Grade 1.
The Level K Fundations materials include limited opportunities for students to engage in decoding practice focused on accuracy and automaticity. The teacher models fluent reading in the materials, and students echo what the teacher decodes or states. Level K is grounded in teacher-centered modeling activities where students repeat or mimic the teacher. Students are provided decoding opportunities through echoing the teacher. Students view Standard Sound Cards as they tap out words. Standard Sound Cards are utilized beginning in Unit 2 and the use of Standard Sound Cards continues throughout the year for the teacher to display unit words to tap and blend. The At Home Support Pack contains decoding activities to be completed by students at home. Additionally, teachers are directed to move outside of the core materials and use the Fluency Kit as an intervention for students in Tier 2 for decoding practice.
Examples of materials provide systematic and explicit instruction and practice in fluency by focusing on accuracy and automaticity in decoding.
- In the Level K Fundations Teacher's Manual, Skills Taught in Fundations, Fluency, pages 5-6, the text details how fluency is taught in this program. To develop fluency and speed of reading, students echo and chorally read text. When engaging in an echo read, the teacher reads a sentence and students repeat. When chorally reading, the teacher and students read together. Additionally, the teacher helps students with phrasing by scooping sentences.
- In the Level K Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 3, Week 3, Day 5, Trick Word Practice, page 265, the teacher states each sentence, and students repeat. The teacher writes the sentence and scoops into phrases. The teacher reads the sentence, and students echo.
- In the Level K Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 5, Week 2, Day 1, Word Play Activities: Make Words for Decoding, pages 358-359: The teacher uses Standard Sound Cards to display 3-5 words from the Unit Resources. Teachers make each word then say and tap each sound, blend the sounds as they drag their thumb across their fingers. The teacher points under each card while saying each sound, dragging his/her finger under all three cards to blend the sounds to read the word with the students.
Examples of materials provide some opportunities for students in Kindergarten and Grade 1 to engage in decoding practice focused on accuracy and automaticity. Decoding practice is usually modeled by the teacher and then students echo the teacher.
- In the Level K Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 5, Week 2, Day 1, Word Play Activities: Make Words for Decoding, pages 358-359: Review Sentence Dictation: The teacher states a sentence and has students repeat. Students place the Sentence Frames as needed. The teacher writes the sentence on the frames and dictates changes in the sentence. The teacher taps out the changed word to check spelling. Then teacher continues dictating changes, reading the entire sentence and has a student make the necessary change.
Indicator 1q
Materials provide teacher guidance to support students as they confirm or self-correct errors (Grades 1-2) and emphasize reading for purpose and understanding.
The materials reviewed for Kindergarten partially meet the criteria for materials provide teacher guidance to support students as they confirm or self-correct errors and emphasize reading for purpose and understanding.
The Level K Fundations materials provide opportunities for students to listen and read for purpose and understanding through Storytime activities, but the materials lack multiple opportunities for students to read emergent readers for purpose and understanding. For some Storytime activities, short passages are provided; however, teachers are often directed to self-select their own texts with some suggested titles provided on a list. In Unit 2, the teacher reads aloud ABC books with a purpose to point out letters in the books. The ABC books are not provided in the materials. In Unit 3, the teacher is to find short narrative stories to read aloud to students. In Unit 4, the teacher must find stories to read aloud that will help develop students’ retelling abilities. In Unit 5, the teacher must find two narrative and informational books which feature the same kind of animal.
There are not multiple opportunities provided over the course of the year for students to read emergent-reader texts (K) for purpose and understanding.
Examples of materials contain explicit directions and/or think-alouds for the teacher to model how to engage with a text to emphasize reading for purpose and understanding include:
- In the Level K Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 3, Week 3, Day 5, Storytime, page 365, the teacher and students will say and act out a previously read passage, “Baby Echo Finds Echo at Last.” The students retell the story while the teacher illustrates the story with four simple pictures leaving space at the bottom of each page. As the teacher draws the pictures, the teacher models retelling the story. A student is selected to retell the story pointing to the pictures.
- In the Level K Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 4, Week 1, Storytime, page 311, the teacher self-selects a picture book which tells a narrative story. Before reading the book, a discussion is held about possible happenings in the story with students making predictions. After reading to the students, the teacher uses an anchor chart to discuss characters, setting, and main events. Students use the chart as a guide to retell each category.
- In the Level K Fundations Teacher's Manual, Unit 5, Week 4, Day 4, Make It Fun activity: Guess Where, page 385, students are shown the books previously read during Storytime in Units 4 and 5. The title, author, and illustrator for each book are read to the students. The teacher then asks the students to recall the main events in each story. Students are told they are going to play a guessing game. The teacher says, “I am going to describe a place and see if you can guess in which story that setting belongs.”