Amplify Texas (Covid Emergency Release) Grade K

Evaluation for 2.1
Materials include systematic, year-long plans for phonics instruction.

The materials meet the criteria for this indicator. Materials include a systematic, year-long plan for phonics instruction.

Materials include a cohesive, TEKS-aligned scope and sequence that outlines the essential knowledge and skills that are taught throughout the year. Materials clearly demonstrate vertical alignment that shows the progression of skill development from year to year. Lessons follow a developmentally appropriate, systematic progression from simple to more complex concepts.

Evidence includes but is not limited to:

Materials include a cohesive, TEKS aligned scope and sequence that outlines the essential knowledge and skills that are taught throughout the year.

• The Skills Unit 1 “Planning Documents” include a scope and sequence that outlines when phonics skills are taught throughout the units and/or year. For example, during the first quarter, the materials introduce K.2.A.iii (identifying individual sounds) and move to K.2.A.viii (blending onset and rime). Teachers introduce K.2.A.v (blending) at the end of the school year.
• The materials include information on the phonological awareness and phonics objectives and the objectives aligned to grade-level TEKS. For example, in the Planning Documents, the Skills Unit 4 “Overview” includes the objective “Orally blend and segment sounds in words,” which is aligned to segmenting spoken one-syllable words into individual phonemes (K.2.A.x).
• The materials include information on the phonological awareness and phonics objectives and the objectives aligned to grade-level TEKS. For example, kindergarten Planning Documents include a “Curriculum Map” that includes the objectives for each unit and the aligned grade-level TEKS. In Unit 6, the learning objectives include:
  • Orally blend sounds to form words.
  • Identify sound pictures by their letter names.
  • Identify and create rhyming words.
  • Blend and read words with consonant clusters of up to five sounds.
  • Read words with “Tricky Spelling” s pronounced /z/ and “Tricky Words” I, are, and little.
• The materials include a cohesive scope and sequence that covers the entire year and outline how the phonological awareness and phonics TEKS are taught throughout the year. Each unit has a specific scope and sequence that explains which essential knowledge and skills will be taught, practiced, and reviewed. The planning documents contain a “6 Week Kindergarten ELAR Year-long Scope and Sequence” and a “9 Week Kindergarten ELAR Year-long Scope and Sequence.” Each document lists TEKS.

Materials clearly demonstrate vertical alignment that shows the progression of skill development from year to year.

• The materials clearly outline the progression of phonemic awareness and phonics skill development from kindergarten through grade 2 and provide lesson plans at the beginning and end of each year to review and build upon the previous year’s lessons. There is a “Program Overview” PDF and PPT with color-coded graphics that outline skills that should be taught and mastered each year. The Program Overview includes “Foundational skills year by year,” showing the progression of skill development from year to year for categories including “Oral Language, Print Awareness, Phonological Awareness, Phonetic and Spelling Knowledge, Fluency, and Vocabulary.” For example, within Phonological Awareness, kindergarten students learn rhyming words. In grade 1, students learn alliteration. In grade 2, students learn long and short vowels. In Phonics, kindergarten students learn letter-sound correspondences. In grade 1, students learn r-controlled vowels. In grade 2, students learn multisyllabic words.

Lessons follow a developmentally appropriate, systematic progression from simple to more complex concepts (e.g., CVC words before CCCVCC words and single syllable words before multisyllabic words).

• The lesson objectives follow a systematic progression from simple to complex concepts. In Skills Unit 1, Lesson 1, the lesson objective states, “Students will identify, blend, and manipulate syllables to form multisyllabic words by using hand gestures and by playing a game involving a large motor.” In Skills Unit 2, students start to identify the beginning sounds of words. In Unit 3, students recognize spoken alliteration or groups of words that begin with the same spoken onset or initial /m/ sound.
• During the middle of the year, the students segment sounds. For example, in Skills Unit 4, Lesson 1, materials instruct the teacher: “Tell students today they will practice doing the opposite of blending. This is called segmenting. Wiggle or move your index finger and say the first sound in the word, /g/ and /oe/. Practice this with the class. Segment the remaining words (go, no, say, day).” In Unit 5, students read and write simple VC and CVC words. At the end of the year, students read and spell words with long vowels and separated digraphs. In Unit 6, students demonstrate phonetic knowledge using letter-sound relationships to decode, including VC, CVC, CCVC, and CVCC.
• In later units, the progression is more complex. In Unit 7, students distinguish the similar sounds of /ch/ and /j/ in minimal word pairs. In Skills Unit 9, Lesson 21, students read “Pots and Pans” decodable readers and participate in a “Wiggle Card” activity that has action words (CVC, CCVC, CVCC) to act out from the story they read. In Unit 10, the students orally segment two-syllable words with up to seven phonemes.
   

Evaluation for 2.2
Materials provide direct (explicit) and systematic instruction in developing grade-level phonics skills within and across lessons.

The materials meet the criteria for this indicator. Materials provide direct (explicit) and systematic instruction in developing grade-level phonics skills within and across lessons.

Lessons include detailed guidance for each component of the gradual release of responsibility model. Materials contain a teacher edition with ample and useful annotations and suggestions on how to present the content in the student materials.

Evidence includes but is not limited to:

Lessons include detailed guidance for each component of the gradual release of responsibility model.

• The lessons guide the teachers in using the gradual release model by including subtitles in the “Teacher Guide” for modeling, guided practice, working collaboratively, and working independently. For example, in Skills Unit 2, Lesson 6 provides the following assistance to “Practice Blending”: “Display all of the Blending Picture Cards you prepared in advance and review the names of the pictures with students. Say one of the names of the pictures in a segmented fashion and have a student select the correct Picture Card. Have the student and/or the entire class segment and blend the word. Make sure students use the arm motions as they segment and blend the word.”
• The materials provide lessons that follow the gradual release process. For example, in Unit 5, Lesson 1, the lesson guides the teacher through a gradual release process: “Introduce spelling /B/ > B) avoiding using the letter name bee during this activity. Instead, say the sound /b/. Tell students you are going to show them how to draw a picture of the /b/ sound. Then say the sound /b/. Tell students you are going to use your entire arm to draw a very large letter in the air. Model this with your back to students, encouraging them to copy the motions and repeat the steps and phrases with you. Distribute and display Activity Page 1.1. Tell students they will practice drawing pictures of the /b/ sound together. Point to the letter b at the top of the page and ask students to say the sound /b/ together. Have students follow your example as you model the writing process. Working as a group, guide students to complete each item in the rows of letters as you continue to model the writing process.” The process moves from teacher modeling to the students completing a practice page to be reviewed later by the teacher.
• In Skills Unit 8, Lesson 6, the materials guide the teacher during a short vowel warm-up activity. The teacher displays the large letter cards for i, a, and o, in that order, from left to right, so students can see them. Materials instruct:  “Say each sound while making the corresponding gesture. Have students repeat after you. Once students are confident in their pronunciation and able to say the sounds clearly, have them say all three sounds. If students are having difficulty pronouncing the vowel sounds accurately, you may have them say the words knit, gnat, and knot in this order and in reverse order before having them say the vowel sounds in isolation.”

Materials contain a teacher edition with ample and useful annotations and suggestions on how to present the content in the student materials.

• The teacher edition contains useful annotations and suggestions for teachers on how to present the content in the materials. For example, the teacher edition includes “Notes” in the margins that provide teachers with more details on how to support students during instruction. For example, in Skills Unit 1, Lesson 2, “Support” notes state that “finger-thumb opposition (touching the thumb to each finger)” helps to prepare students “for the tripod grip.” When students begin writing, teachers should “have them practice finger-thumb opposition for 30 seconds before asking them to pick up a writing utensil.”
• In Skills Unit 4, Lesson 14, Support notes state, “If students have difficulty wiggling only one finger at a time, they can tap on each finger with the pointing finger of their opposite hand as you say each sound.”
• There are several sections in the margins, including “ELL Support,” “Additional Support,” and “Challenge.” For example, in Unit 5, Lesson 1, the ELL Support bullet states: “Foundational Skills; Foundational Literacy Skills; Prior to reading the Sound Riddles, tell students that you have pictures to show them that will give them some clues about the answers to the riddles. Point to the two colored objects, say blue as you show the blue object, and ask students to repeat. Point to the brown object, say brown, and ask students to repeat. Point to the ball, say ball, and ask students to say ball. Then, point to the bird, say bird, and ask students to repeat.”
• Each Teacher Guide includes a “Teacher Resources” section at the end of each unit. This section includes forms and charts which may be useful, including the following: “Oral Blending Observation Record,” “Discussion Questions Observation Record,” “Anecdotal Reading Record,” “Unit Additional Support Activity Pages,” and “Unit Activity Book Answer Key.” There are also Support tips on the sides of the Teacher Guide pages. For example, in Skills Unit 6, Lesson 1, the Support tip is “Demonstrate the objects being pushed from left to right from the students’ perspective, which will be right to left from your perspective if you are sitting across from students. Tell students they will not always use all of the sound boxes.”
• In Skills Unit 10, Lesson 2, Support notes in the margin state: “The task of applying a silly voice requires notable cognitive effort. Silly voices should be used to motivate students to revisit text that is already very familiar from prior instruction and rereading. If students are not already reading the text with high accuracy, then rereading without silly voices to first establish ease with word recognition is appropriate.”

Evaluation for 2.3
Materials include detailed guidance that supports teacher’s delivery of instruction.

The materials meet the criteria for this indicator. Materials include detailed guidance that supports teachers’ delivery of instruction.

Guidance for teachers includes information about common phonics pattern misconceptions and guiding principles related to specific phonics skills. Guidance for teachers provides detailed, specific instructional strategies with consistent routines for teaching each phonics skill. Materials include specific guidance for providing students with immediate, corrective feedback. Materials provide detailed guidance for connecting previously taught phonics skills to new learning. Materials include clear guidance on how to pace each lesson, including specific time suggestions for each component of the gradual release model.

Evidence includes but is not limited to:

Guidance for teachers includes information about common misconceptions and guiding principles related to specific phonics skills.

• At the beginning of each unit, the teacher has an overview of what will be in the unit, assessments that can be used, and things to look for. In Skills Unit 2, the materials address common misconceptions. For example, the materials state: “As a teacher, you should be aware of the difference between sequential and final blending. In sequential blending, the word is built step by step by adding sounds to blended sound sequences. For example, the word fish is blended like this: /f/.../i/...fi.../sh/...fish. In final blending, the sounds in a word are said individually and then blended: /f//i//sh/, fish.”
• Skills Unit 6, Lesson 11, emphasizes decodable parts of words and provides the opportunity to apply phonics skills with connected text: “Write the word little on the board/chart paper and ask students how they might sound out or pronounce this word. (Based on their current code knowledge, students may say ‘/l/ /i/ /t/ /t/ /l/ /e/,’ which is not a recognizable or real word.) Tell students that they can sound out some parts of this word. The beginning sounds as they would expect, but the ending is tricky. Read the word for students and then guide them in noticing that they can sound out the beginning (/l/ /i/ /t/), but that the ending is just /l/.”
• In Skills Unit 7, a “Digraphs and Clusters” section in the “Introduction” explains: “Digraphs should not be confused with consonant clusters. A consonant digraph is a set of two letters that, jointly stand for one consonant sound. A consonant cluster is a set of two or more letters that stand for two or more consonant sounds.” Examples include: “The word clip begins with a consonant cluster; the letters c and l stand for two separate sounds. The word ship begins with a consonant sound written with a digraph. The letters s and h are working together as a digraph (or letter team) to stand for one sound.” The materials share guiding principles related to specific skills. For example, a guiding principle is “Systematic phonics instruction helps students learn to read more effectively than non-systematic phonics and is effective in whole group, small group, and one-to-one settings.”
• Skills Unit 9, Lesson 2, emphasizes the decodable parts of words: “Remind students that Tricky Words have parts that do not ‘follow the rules,’ or are not pronounced the way we would expect them to be pronounced, so they must simply memorize how to pronounce and read these parts of the words.”

Guidance for teachers provides detailed, specific instructional strategies for teaching each phonics skill.

• The materials include a variety of instructional strategies with consistent routines for each phonics skill. For example, kindergarten materials introduce a chaining routine in Skills Unit 3. The teacher introduces the “Pocket Chart Chaining” activity for reading by pointing to the cards and having students say the sounds, not the letter names: “Tell students you are going to arrange the cards to make a word. Move the m, a, and t cards to the center of your pocket chart to spell mat.”
• There is guidance for teachers that provides detailed, specific instructional strategies with consistent routines for teaching each phonics skill. In Skills Unit 9, in various lessons, including Lessons 1 and 6, the gesture of a thumb-forefinger tap is used to mark each sound within a word. Also in Skills Unit 9, there are games, including “Tricky Word Bingo” in Lesson 2 and “Match Maker” in Lesson 4.
• Skills Unit 9, Lesson 7, includes multimodal activities such as the “Push and Say” segmenting activity, which includes hand gestures, a script, phonetic representations, and an overview in the “Teacher Guide.” The materials state: “This activity is valuable for developing readiness for phonics work with up to seven phonemes. Representing phonemes with objects allows for cognitive focus on discriminating sounds in larger words before requiring the additional demand of matching letter knowledge to those sounds.”

Materials include specific guidance for providing students with immediate, corrective feedback.

• The materials provide examples of how to provide support when a student is struggling to master a skill. For instance, in Skills Unit 2, Lesson 6, materials guide the teacher: “Display all of the Blending Picture Cards you prepared in advance, and review the names of the pictures with students. Say one of the names of the pictures in a segmented fashion and have a student select the correct Picture Card. Have the student and/or the entire class segment and blend the word. Make sure students use the arm motions as they segment and blend the word. Blend the remaining cards. If support is needed, provide immediate feedback by reducing the number of Picture Cards as needed.”
• In Skills Unit 5, Lesson 2, materials instruct: “Display the Large Letter Cards for i, a, and o in that order, from left to right, so students can see them. Say each sound while making the corresponding gesture. Have students repeat after you. Repeat several times. If students are having difficulty pronouncing the vowel sounds accurately, you can have them say the words knit, gnat, and not in this order and in reverse order before having them say the vowel sounds in isolation.”
• Unit 10, Lesson 2, provides immediate feedback when students are identifying “Tricky Words” (high-frequency words): “Make a copy of the Bingo Boards (Activity Page TR 2.3), one board for each student. Provide each student with nine tokens to use as place markers. Ask students to put their finger on the word if they find it and read it aloud to confirm they are correct before covering the space. When students are incorrect, use the opportunity to address the confusion.” When students are correct, teachers ask, “How did you know that was the correct word?” Materials further state, “This verbalization of knowledge or strategies used is powerful for reinforcing learning.” The game ends when a player has three spaces covered in a row or achieves “blackout” (covering the entire board).

Materials provide detailed guidance for connecting previously taught phonics skills to new learning.

• The materials provide detailed guidance for connecting previously taught phonics skills to new ones and include specific references in lesson plans and scripts to previous learning. For example, in Skills Unit 1, Lesson 2, the routine for each lesson’s warm-up activity begins with a review of previously taught sounds, then adds new sounds being taught and provides a lesson plan script. The materials encourage: “Have students compare today’s sound /a/ with yesterday’s sound /m/. Ask students what differences they see. For example, (/a/ is made with an open mouth, /m/ is made with the lips pressed closed).”
• Materials provide detailed guidance for connecting previously taught phonics skills to new learning. An example in Skills Unit 4, Lesson 8, links to previous lessons. Part of the scripting states: “Review the Sound/Spellings; Provide one copy of Activity Page TR 9.5 for each student to use to practice the sound/spellings /p/ and /e/. Students should write p or e only under pictures of words with the corresponding sounds. Point out the letter formation arrows provided for the picture of each sound. This can serve as a reference when writing and/or as tracing practice if used with a clear plastic sleeve and dry-erase marker.”
• In Skills Unit 7, Lesson 1, the warm-up exercise has two sections: “In Oral Segmenting, you will segment words containing up to five sounds, with consonant clusters at the beginning and/or the end of the word. You will begin with a set of six words which will be repeated for the first few lessons. You will also add a new word in every lesson until you have a set of ten. At that point, you will drop the oldest word when adding a new word in the next lesson. This will maintain a set of ten words at all times. In Sound/Spelling Review, you will review selected sounds and spellings that have been taught.”
• In Skills Unit 10, Lesson 3, to build on previous learning, the materials state: “Remind students they recently learned the sound /ee/ as in sheep. Have students say the /ee/ sound several times. Ask students to repeat a number of words with the /ee/ sound: queen, eel, read, week, eagle, leaf, seed. Write the spelling ee on the board/chart paper, and have students write the spelling in the air using their pointer fingers.”

Materials include clear guidance on how to pace each lesson, including specific time suggestions for each component of the gradual release model.

• The materials include guidance on the recommended length for each lesson and specific guidance on how much time to spend on each lesson component. For example, in the kindergarten “Curriculum Map,” Skills Unit 1, the “Unit Length” of Unit 1 is “13 Days; Instructional Lessons: 10 Days; Pausing Point: 3 Days; Unit Assessment: Lesson 10.”
• The materials include a “Lesson at a Glance” table that outlines specific time frames for each lesson component. The materials do not specifically use the wording of the gradual release model. For example, in Skills Unit 4, Lesson 1, Lesson at a Glance provides an outline of the “Foundational Skills” block:
  • Introduce /er/ > ur and ir (Phonics) in a whole group setting for 30 minutes.
  • Practice Spelling Alternatives for /er/ (Phonics) in a whole group setting for 30 minutes.
  • Play Word Baseball (Word Recognition) in a whole group setting for 10 minutes.
• The materials provide specific guidance on how much time to spend on each lesson component. Each Skills Unit’s “Content” section includes distinct components and specific time allotments. For example, in Skills Unit 6, Lesson 6, the teacher allots 45 minutes for Foundational Skills, which include a “Warm-Up,” “Oral Blending—Sound/Spelling Review,” 30 minutes for “Language Skills” (“Review Letter Names—Introduce Tricky Word: Are”), and 15 for “Language (Chaining Dictation).”

Evaluation for 2.4
Materials include frequent and distributed review of phonics skills with cumulative practice opportunities with decodable text.

The materials meet the criteria for this indicator. Materials include frequent and distributed review of phonics skills with cumulative practice opportunities with decodable text.

Materials include intentional cumulative review and practice activities throughout the span of the curriculum. Practice opportunities include only phonics skills that have been explicitly taught. Decodable texts incorporate cumulative practice of taught phonics skills.

Evidence includes but is not limited to:

Materials include intentional cumulative review and practice activities throughout the span of the curriculum.

• Materials include intentional cumulative review and practice activities throughout the span of the curriculum. Lessons use consistent routines to introduce and review phonics skills with different modalities. Each lesson begins with a “Warm-Up: Oral Blending” and moves into “Sound/Spelling Review” or “Alphabet Sound” review, depending on the lesson. For example, in Unit 6, Lesson 5, the Warm-Up: Oral Blending instructions state: “Use the previously established blending procedures. The first five words are in a chain, and the last five words belong to the same category. Have students tell you the category.” Sound/Spelling Review instructions state: “Following your established procedures, review the Large Letter Cards listed in the Lesson at a Glance chart. Ensure that students present the sound for each letter, not the name.”
• Skills Unit 3, Lesson 10, provides phonics review of the short /a/ sound and the newly learned short /i/ sound with a word list (big, cat, bag, pat). For guided practice, students count phonemes using the hand gesture routine utilized throughout the program.
• In Skills Unit 7, Lesson 6, students review a word list using finger tapping. Instructions state: “Oral Segmenting Note: The word skips has been dropped from the list to make room for the word traps. In the remaining lessons, a set of ten words is maintained by adding a new word in each lesson while dropping the oldest word. Follow the steps outlined in Lesson 1, dropping the word skips and adding the word traps.123456 traps /t/ /r/ /a/ /p/ /s/ tapping finger for each phoneme.”
• In Skills Unit 9, Lessons 1 and 5, students learn to count phonemes using a thumb-forefinger tap. Throughout the program, they use the same routine in phonemic awareness and phonics activities.
• Skills Unit 9, Lesson 7, reviews previously taught spelling patterns during the “Sound SpellingReview” with the “Large Letter Card” activity and uses the hand gesture routine taught in Lesson 1 with the word list. Instructions state: “Oral Blending. Follow the instructions in Lesson 1. For example, (4) /w/ /ee/ /k/ /er/ > weaker; (4) /s/ /ee/ /k/ /er/ > seeker; (5) /s/ /n/ /ee/ /k/ /er/ > sneaker; (5) /s/ /n/ /ee/ /k/ /ee/ > sneaky.”

Practice opportunities include only phonics skills that have been explicitly taught.

• Practice opportunities include only phonics skills that have been explicitly taught. In Skills Unit 2, Lesson 10, after previously teaching blending and segmenting two-sound words, the teacher explicitly teaches adding a third sound: “Remind students that a sound can be added to a word to make a new word. Say ray. Ask students to name the word you would make by adding the /n/ sound to the end of the word ray. The new word is rain.”
• In Skills Unit 5, Lesson 5, after previously teaching the /b/ and /l/ sounds, the lesson provides practice and focus skills from previous lessons. During independent practice, students participate in a closed sorting activity: “Use the picture cards from Activity Pages TR 5.1 and TR 5.2. Tell students which target sounds they need to listen for to help them sort the pictures. Tell students to place cards that begin with the /b/ sound in one pile and place cards that begin with the /l/ sound in another pile.”
• During Skills Unit 7, Lesson 1, the students engage in activities for more help with segmenting /ch/: “Provide each student with a handful of small objects (e.g., cubes, tiles, beans, buttons, etc.) Tell students you will say sounds for them to blend into words. Use familiar blending motions (e.g., finger tapping) as you say the words in a segmented fashion. Use Sound Boxes to have students represent phonemes with objects. Representing phonemes with objects allows for cognitive focus on discriminating sounds in larger (four-and five-phoneme) words before requiring the additional demand of matching letter knowledge to those sounds. Have students repeat the sounds and push an object into the boxes for each phoneme (from left to right).”

Decodable texts incorporate cumulative practice of taught phonics skills.

• According to the Skills Unit 1 “Introduction” section, “a separate 120-page Picture Reader—with colorful rebus pictures and high-frequency words selected from the Dolch Sight and Fry Instant Word Lists—is used to gradually introduce important high-frequency words (called Tricky Words) in a highly controlled manner over the course of instruction.” In Skills 3, students use the “Picture Reader” to practice reading one, two, and three.
• The materials also include “Student Readers” with “100% decodable texts for students to read.” In Skills Units 6–10, there is a Student Reader listed for each of the units. New spellings taught in the unit are printed in bold throughout the Reader to help students master new material. For example, in Skills Unit 6, Lesson 12, the materials provide a decodable text called Mumps. Students practice reading CVC and CVCC words.
• Skills Unit 9, Lesson 10, contains a decodable text, Fix that Ship, which incorporates cumulative practice of CVC, CVCC, and CCVC words.

Evaluation for 3.A.1
Materials provide systematic and direct (explicit) instruction, practice, and review related to alphabet knowledge.

The materials meet the criteria for this indicator. Materials provide systematic and direct (explicit) instruction, practice, and review related to alphabet knowledge.

Materials provide a research-based, systematic sequence for introducing letter names and their corresponding sounds. Materials provide scripted direct (explicit) instruction for teaching the identification of all 26 letters (uppercase and lowercase) and their corresponding sounds. Materials provide direct (explicit) instruction on forming the 26 letters (uppercase and lowercase). Materials incorporate a variety of activities and resources for students to develop, practice, and reinforce (through cumulative review) alphabet knowledge in isolation and in context of meaningful print.

Evidence includes but is not limited to:

Materials provide a research based, systematic sequence for introducing letter names and their corresponding sounds.

• The materials provide a systematic sequence for introducing letter names and their corresponding sounds. In Skills Unit 3, the materials introduce eight sounds and symbols: /m/, /a/, /t/, /d/, /o/, /k/ spelled c, /g/, and /i/. In Skills Unit 4, the materials introduce the sounds and symbols /n/, /h/, /s/, /f/, /v/, /z/, /p/, and /e/. In Skills Unit 5, the materials introduce the sounds and symbols /b/, /l/, /r/, /u/, /w/, /j/, /y/, /x/, and /k/ spelled k. In Skills Unit 7, the materials introduce the sounds and symbols for /qu/.
• Throughout the lessons in Unit 10, the teacher reviews letter names and their corresponding sounds. Materials instruct: “Call on different students to provide the letter name and letter sound for each Large Letter Card. Note students’ performance in the Letter Name and Letter Sound Observation Record.”
• The materials cite Gough and Tunmer for research: “Many reading researchers now subscribe to a view of reading that is known as ‘the simple view of reading.’ This view, which is associated with reading researchers Philip Gough and William Tunmer, holds that there are two chief elements that are crucially important to reading comprehension: decoding skills and language comprehension ability. This program includes two strands of instruction, and these strands correspond with the elements of reading isolated in the simple view of reading. The Skills Strand is meant to build students’ decoding skills (D), while the Knowledge Strand is meant to build students’ language comprehension ability (C) by exposing them to vocabulary, concepts, and ideas through frequent reading aloud. It is important to understand that both strands are crucial for reading comprehension in later grades….This program includes phonics instruction, but the instruction differs from the phonics usually taught in the United States in that it begins with sounds and then attaches those sounds to spellings. In a typical phonics lesson in the United States, the teacher writes the letter m on the board and says, ‘This is the letter em. It says /m/.’ As a teacher using this program, you will be asked to present your lessons in a different way. You will be asked to begin with the sound. At the beginning of the lesson you will tell the class: ‘Today’s sound is /m/.’ You will lead the class in some engaging oral language exercises that will allow students to say and hear the sound /m/. Once students are familiar with the sound, you will show them how to draw a ‘picture of the sound.’ You will write the letter m on the board and explain that this is how we make a picture of the /m/ sound.”

Materials provide scripted direct (explicit) instruction for teaching the identification of all 26 letters (uppercase and lowercase) and their corresponding sounds.

• The materials provide scripted, direct (explicit) instruction for alphabet knowledge. In Skills Unit 3, Lesson 1, materials instruct teachers: “Tell the students the new sound is /a/. Have students repeat the sound several times, drawing it out. Distribute a handheld mirror to each student. Tell students to use the mirrors to watch the shape of their mouths as they say the sound /a/. Ask students if their mouths are open or closed when they make this sound and if they can tell where their tongue is when they make this sound.” Students compare the sound /a/ with the sound /m/ and what differences they see. Next, the lesson introduces spelling /a/ with a “Teacher Modeling Note”: “In Kindergarten, students learn the following style for lowercase a:a. This style is generally used in handwriting and early reading materials. The uppercase A will be introduced later. Note: Avoid using the letter name ay during this activity. Instead, refer to the sound /a/. Tell students you are going to show them how to draw a picture of the /a/ sound.”
• The materials provide scripted direct (explicit) instruction for alphabet knowledge. For example, in Skills 3, Lesson 3, the teacher introduces the new sound /t/ and has students say the /t/ sound several times. The teacher asks students to repeat a number of words that have the /t/ sound at the beginning, such as tag, top, and toe. Next, the teacher asks students to repeat a number of words with the /t/ sound at the end, including kit, kat, and kite. The teacher continues the lesson with the same steps, with more words that include the /t/ sound at the beginning and end. The teacher shows students how to draw a picture of the /t/ sound. The teacher draws a large lowercase t on the board/chart paper and describes what they are doing.
• The materials provide scripted, direct (explicit) instruction for alphabet knowledge. For example, in Skills Unit 4, Lesson 1, materials instruct: “Tell students the new sound is /n/. Have students say the /n/ sound several times, drawing it out. Ask students to repeat a number of words having the /n/ sound at the beginning: nut, nice, not. Ask students to repeat a number of words having the /n/ sound at the end: fun, ran, tin, shine. Tell students you are going to read a story containing a number of examples of the /n/ sound and to touch their noses whenever they hear the /n/ sound. Read the story very slowly, almost word by word, making an effort to emphasize every /n/ sound.” The lesson continues with introducing the spelling of /N/. The Teacher Modeling Note guides: “Avoid using the letter name en during this activity. Instead, refer to the sound /n/.”

Materials provide direct (explicit) instruction on forming the 26 letters (uppercase and lowercase).

• The materials provide direct, explicit instruction on forming the lowercase letter m. In Skills Unit 3, Lesson 1, the students learn to write the spelling m to represent /m/ and read and write simple CVC words that include the spelling m to match a picture. A note to the teacher states: “Avoid using the letter name em during this activity. Instead, refer to the sound /m/. Draw a large lowercase m on the board and describe what you are doing using the phrases provided. (‘Start on...1. short line down 2. hump 3. hump.’) Then, say the sound /m/. Tell students you are going to use your entire arm to draw a very large letter in the air. Model this with your back to students, encouraging them to copy the motions and repeat the steps and phrases with you. Say the /m/ sound when you finish.”
• In Unit 5, Lesson 6, the materials provide a lesson on writing the letter w. The scripting for the lesson states: “Distribute and display Activity Page 6.1. Tell students they will practice drawing pictures of the /w/ sound together. Point to the letter w at the top of the page and ask students to say the sound /w/ together. Have students follow your example as you model the writing process. Tell students to use the black dots as starting points, then trace the gray dotted letters in the first row, following your example. Be sure to say, and prompt students to say, the steps and phrases as you complete each letter: ‘Start at the dotted line...1. diagonal down...2. diagonal up...3. diagonal down...4. diagonal up.’ As you finish each letter, say the sound, /w/.”
• Uppercase letters that have a similar form to lowercase letters are introduced earlier. Materials explain: “If uppercase letters and lowercase letters had exactly the same form and differed only in size, there would be no reason to delay the teaching of uppercase letters alongside lowercase letters. However, that is not the case with the Roman alphabet used to write English words. Many of the uppercase letters have a totally different form than the lowercase letters: compare D and d, E and e, G and g.” The end of Unit 5 includes the first story with sentences. The sentences in this story begin with uppercase letters. However, at this point, only uppercase letters that have the same basic shape as their lowercase equivalents are used. C, F, J, K, M, O, P, S, T, U, V, W, X, Y, and Z are used. A, B, D, E, G, H, I, L, N, Q, and R are not used. Only the uppercase letters that closely resemble the lowercase letters are used until Unit 9 of kindergarten, when the remaining uppercase letters are introduced.

Materials incorporate a variety of activities and resources for students to develop, practice, and reinforce (through cumulative review) alphabet knowledge in isolation and in context of meaningful print.

• In the “Activity” book of Skills Unit 3, the students write the letter m under pictures that begin with the /m/ sound. In Activity 4.3, using a T-chart, students affix pictures of things beginning with the /m/ sound under the m heading and pictures beginning with the /t/ sound under the t heading.
• The materials provide “Large Letter Cards” and “Small Letter Cards” for students to use as flashcards to practice alphabet knowledge. They can be used with lessons throughout the curriculum. These cards are in the “Ancillary Components” section of the materials. In Skills Unit 8, Lesson 1, there are Large Letter Cards for the short vowels warm-up. Each card contains a child making the gesture for the sound and the letter /i/, /a/, or /o/. Materials include “Activity Pages” in the “Foundational Skills” section of the “Teacher Guide.”
• The materials provide “Sound Cards” in the Ancillary Components to practice decoding while focusing on certain letters to retain alphabet knowledge. The cards have photos with words under them, and the focus letter is in red to highlight it. For example, in Skills Unit 8, Lesson 12, there are Sound Cards for nn, pp, rr, ss, tt, and zz to place on the appropriate “Sound Posters” for the foundational lesson. Sound Cards are used throughout Skills Unit 10. For example, Lesson 3 uses Sound Card 47 (tree), and Lesson 10 uses Sound Card 48 (plane) for the Foundational Skills lesson.
• In Skills Unit 9, Lesson 1, students recognize, name, and write the uppercase letters A, B, C, and D. Materials instruct teachers: “Tell students you are going to show them how to write uppercase letters for the first four letters of the alphabet, A, B, C, and D. Mark primary handwriting guidelines on the board/chart paper. Write a lowercase a. Ask students to name the letter and point out this is a lowercase a. Also, point out that the letter is written completely below the dotted line. Write an uppercase A next to the lowercase a, describing what you are doing using the phrases provided.”
• Activity Page 6.2 encourages parents to help their child cut out the picture cards on the page. Activity Page 7.2 instructs: “Have your student glue or tape the cards with pictures beginning with the /a/ sound (ax, apple, alligator) under the a heading. Next, glue or tape cards with pictures beginning with the /o/ sound (octopus, otter, ostrich) under the o heading.”

Evaluation for 3.A.2
Materials provide systematic and direct (explicit) instruction, practice, and review related to the alphabetic principle.

The materials meet the criteria for this indicator. Materials provide systematic and direct (explicit) instruction, practice, and review related to the alphabetic principle.

Materials systematically introduce letter-sound relationships in an order that quickly allows for application to basic decoding and encoding. Materials provide scripted direct (explicit) instruction for connecting phonemes to letters within words. Materials incorporate a variety of activities and resources for students to develop, practice, and reinforce (through cumulative review) their understanding of applying letter-sound correspondence to decode simple words both in isolation and in decodable connected text.

Evidence includes but is not limited to:

Materials systematically introduce letter sound relationships in an order that quickly allows for application to basic decoding and encoding.

• In Unit 1, Lessons 1 through 9, the materials lay the groundwork, where students learn and connect sounds to letters. By Unit 2, Lesson 4, students are learning to identify beginning sounds. The materials provide a systematic sequence for introducing letter names and their corresponding sounds. In Skills Unit 3, the materials introduce eight sounds and symbols: /m/, /a/, /t/, /d/, /o/, /k/ spelled c, /g/, and /i/. In Skills Unit 4, the materials introduce the sounds and symbols /n/, /h/, /s/, /f/, /v/, /z/, /p/, and /e/. In Skills Unit 5, the materials introduce the sounds and symbols /b/, /l/, /r/, /u/, /w/, /j/, /y/, /x/, and /k/ spelled k. In Skills Unit 7, the materials introduce the sounds and symbols for /qu/. In Unit 5, Lesson 1, students begin to read and write VC and CVC words.
• In Skills Unit 3, Lesson 5, the students practice blending and decoding simple CVC words. The materials instruct the teacher: “Move the d, a, and d cards to the center of your pocket chart to spell dad. Point to each sound in the word and ask the class to say it. Have students join you in blending the sounds: /d/…/a/…/d/: dad, making sure that students use the blending motions from the Warm-Up. Replace the first d card with the t card and say, ‘If that is dad, what is this?’ Ask a student to read the word. (tad) Ask students what letter sound makes the new word different from the old word (e.g., in dad > tad, the d represents /d/ and the t represents /t/). Complete the chaining.”
• In Skills Unit 6, Lesson 2, there is an encoding lesson called “Pocket Chart Chaining for Spelling.” The scripting states: “In this chaining exercise, you will use words with up to four sounds containing initial consonant clusters. Point to the letters and have students say the sounds, not the letter names. Say the word sip and then break it into its three sounds: /s/.../i/…/p/. Repeat /s/ and ask students to find the spelling for /s/ on the pocket chart. Have a student identify the s card and place it in the middle of the pocket chart. Repeat for the remaining two sounds in the word. Model reading the word, letter sound by letter sound, to check for spelling accuracy. Say to students, ‘If that is sip, who can show me sap?’ Select a student to come to the pocket chart and replace the picture of /i/ with the picture of /a/. After changing the word, say, ‘Which letter did we change to make sip into sap?’ Repeat this process with each word change in the activity. When you come to the four-sound words, tell students some words have two consonant sounds at the beginning. 1. sip > sap > sat > slat > spat > spot > slot > slit > slip > slop > stop 2. dip > rip > drip > drop > prop > plop > flop > slop > slip > slap.”

Materials provide scripted direct (explicit) instruction for connecting phonemes to letters within words.

• In Skills 6, Lesson 8, scripted direct instruction for consonant-vowel-consonant words instructs the teacher: “Tell students you are going to say a number of words for them to write on the activity page. Say the word let. Then segment the word, raising one finger for each sound: ‘/l/ (raise thumb).../e/ (raise pointer finger).../t/ (raise middle finger). Ask students how many sounds are in the word let. Direct students’ attention to the first three lines on Activity Page 8.1. Have students write an l on the first line, following your example. Repeat for the remaining two sounds and spellings in let. Model reading the word, letter-sound by letter sound, to check for spelling accuracy. Demonstrate this process with at least one or two additional words before having students write the words independently. Remind students to refer to the Sound Posters and/or alphabet strip as a reference if needed.” The teacher proceeds with the gradual release method using the words let, lip, sit, pot, lips, and run.
• The materials teach letter-sound correspondence within irregularly spelled words. In Skills Unit 8, Lesson 5, the materials state: “Write the Tricky Word from on the board/chart paper and ask students how they would pronounce it by blending, tell students this word is pronounced /f/ /r/ /u/ /m/ as in, ‘from here to there,’ circle the letter f and explain it is pronounced just as one would expect, as /f/, and circle the letter r and explain it is also pronounced just as one would expect, as /r/.” Next: “Circle the letter m and explain it is also pronounced just as one would expect, as /m/, underline the letter o and explain it is the tricky part of the word. Students would probably expect this letter to be pronounced /o/, but it is pronounced /u/. Tell students when reading from, they have to remember to pronounce the letter o as /u/, and tell students when writing from, they have to remember to spell the /u/ sound with the letter o.”
• In Skills Unit 8, Lesson 20, the “Primary Focus” provides an objective: “Students will recognize single-syllable, short-vowel words with the following double-letter spellings: ll, ff, ck, dd, zz, and ss.” The “Warm-Up” activity instructs: “Display the Large Letter Cards for i, e, a, u, and o, in that order, from left to right so students can see them. Review sounds and gestures several times using established procedures.” “Sound/Spelling Review” instructs: “Review the Large Letter Cards listed in the Lesson at a Glance and eleven other spellings already taught. Use the procedures described in earlier lessons. When you come to the digraph th, be sure students name both possible sounds (voiceless /th/ and voiced /th/). The “Dictation Identification Assessment” instructs: “Distribute and display Activity Page. Point to the first row of words, and tell students you are going to say one of the two words.”

Materials incorporate a variety of activities and resources for students to develop, practice, and reinforce (through cumulative review) their understanding of applying letter sound correspondence to decode simple words both in isolation and in connected text.

• The materials include various activities to develop, practice, and reinforce students’ knowledge of sound-spelling patterns. For example, Skills Unit 3, Lesson 3, introduces letter sounds in isolation and moves on to use letter cards to build words with letters learned in previous lessons. Materials state: “Tell students they need to look at the pictures of the sounds from left to right in order to read this word. As they look at the pictures, they need to remember the sounds the pictures stand for and blend the sounds together to make the word. Point to each sound in the word and ask the class to say it. Have students join you in blending the sounds: /m/…/a/…/t/: mat, making sure students use the blending motions from the Warm-Up.”
• The materials incorporate newly learned letter sounds with previously taught letter sounds to build new words. For example, in Skills Unit 5, Lesson 1, students complete a “Chaining Folders” activity. In this lesson, students have folders set up similar to the teacher’s pocket chart (including letter cards). Students spell words in their chaining folders and use letters to make new words. The materials provide teachers with words such as bop, top, tap, and zap.
• There are multisensory activities that provide student practice and reinforcement of skills. In Skills Unit 6, students read consonant-vowel-consonant words in the Reader Kit. Students read sentences such as “Kit can run in the first story. Kit can skip. Kit can flip and flop.”

Evaluation for 3.B.1
Materials provide systematic and direct (explicit) instruction, practice, and review to support the development of oral syllable awareness skills, as outlined in the TEKS.

The materials meet the criteria for this indicator. Materials provide opportunities for students to practice simple oral syllable awareness skills, as outlined in the TEKS.

Materials provide a systematic sequence for introducing oral syllable awareness activities that begins with simple skills (detecting, blending, and segmenting syllables) and gradually transitions to more complex skills such as adding, deleting, and substituting syllables. Materials include scripted direct (explicit) instruction for teaching oral syllable awareness skills. Materials incorporate a variety of activities and resources for students to develop, practice, and reinforce skills (through cumulative review).

Evidence includes but is not limited to:

Materials provide a systematic sequence for introducing oral syllable awareness activities that begins with simple skills (detecting, blending, and segmenting syllables) and gradually transitions to more complex skills such as adding, deleting, and substituting syllables.

• The materials provide a systematic sequence for introducing oral syllable awareness activities that begins with identifying and segmenting syllables. In Skills Unit 2, students identify, blend, and manipulate syllables. In Skills Unit 3, they orally blend words of two or three phonemes. In Skills Unit 8, students transition to blending syllables without hand gestures, and in Skills Unit 10, students orally segment two-syllable words. However, in Skills Units 1, 4, 5, 6, and 7, there is no evidence of syllable awareness activities that include identifying, blending, or manipulating.
• To teach and reinforce oral syllable awareness, the “Instructional Strategies for Adding, Deleting, and Substituting Syllables” resource mentions using the Skills units that teach oral syllable awareness as well as the following routines orally during warm-ups and reading lessons: “Pausing Points,” “Additional Support Activities,” and “Word Work” activities. Additional practice opportunities include:
  • Orally dividing a word from the Reader into syllables, then adding, deleting, or substituting alternative syllables.
  • Having students practice verbally with one another in a paired setting.
  • Completing oral “Check for Understanding” activities.
  • Completing a “Challenge” activity during or after a lesson.
• In one oral routine, the teacher tells students they will practice adding syllables in spoken compound words, projects an image of a cupcake, and says the word cupcake aloud. The teacher says: “The name of the food in this picture is a compound (multisyllabic) word. That means it is made up of two words that have been pushed together. Each of the words by itself is one syllable: cup and cake. When the words are combined, the new word has two syllables: cup/cake. Next, the teacher has the students repeat each sound and then clap the syllables with the teacher. Students blend the syllables together and smoothly say cup/cake. Students repeat the blended word with the teacher. The lesson continues using the same routine with an image of a baseball. In this example, students break the word apart into its two original parts, base and ball. The teacher states: “If I took away the word ball, I would be left with the word base. Or, if I took away the word base, I would be left with the word ball. What other syllable(s) could we add to the word ball to make a different word? (foot/ball, etc.) What other syllable could we add to the word base to make a different word? (base/ment, etc.)” Materials state: “Use this routine in Skills 3 and after in which students use chaining to create new words. Conduct this oral routine before showing students their letter cards. As an oral routine, do not display or write words for students.”
• The materials include “Group Practice” and “Independent Practice.” In Group Practice, the teacher calls on a student and repeats the first part of the previous routine with the word pan/cake. The teacher then calls on students and repeats the second part of the routine with the word snow/man. For Independent Practice, students continue practicing adding syllables in compound words. The teacher provides picture cards that show pictures with names that are compound words, such as ear/ring, beach/ball, rain/coat, bird/house, and air/plane, to pairs or small groups. The teacher circulates to ensure students are adding the syllables correctly.

Materials include scripted direct (explicit) instruction for teaching oral syllable awareness skills.

• The materials include scripted direct (explicit) instruction for teaching oral syllable awareness skills. In Skills Unit 2, Lesson 2, the teacher script states: “Hold your fists in front of you, palms facing down. Say the word one as you flip over your right fist and open it. Say the word two as you flip over your left fist and open it. Say the word blend as you clap your hands. Practice this with the class. Tell the class the word cupcake has two sound parts. Say the syllables in a segmented fashion: cup…cake. Hold your fists in front of you, palms facing down. Remember to stand with your back facing students when modeling the blending procedure. Say the syllable cup as you flip over your right fist and open it. Say the syllable cake as you flip over your left fist and open it. Say the word cupcake as you clap your hands. Practice this with the class. Complete the activity using the words listed.” Some of the words listed to use are cupcake, bedroom, and snowman.
• In Skills Unit 9, Lesson 1, materials instruct the teacher to say sounds for students to blend into words, saying “the first word in a segmented fashion” and “marking each sound with a finger tap.” Then, teachers “say the blended word and form a fist.”
• In Skills Unit 10, Lesson 5, the materials provide opportunities for students to learn how to orally segment two-syllable words with up to seven phonemes. The teacher begins by using a sandwich analogy: “Slicing a sandwich in half makes it easier to hold and eat. It’s the same way with words; some words have too many sounds to say in one try, so we have to break the words up into big chunks called syllables.” Starting in this unit, students break words up into different chunks (syllables) (like the halves of a sandwich) and sounds (the bread, meat, and other ingredients that make up those smaller halves). Materials instruct, “Hold up the cardboard box and say, ‘the box is made of cardboard.’” The teacher segments the word card, asking students to repeat, then segments the word board. Finally, the teacher segments the full word cardboard and asks students to repeat. They repeat the process with the pictures for carpet, building, freezer, and children.

Materials incorporate a variety of activities and resources for students to develop, practice, and cumulatively reinforce skills.

• The materials suggest using various multimodal resources to strategically support syllabication development in single-syllable and multisyllabic words. In Unit 2, Lesson 1, the multimodal activities include picture cards, word box activities, the “Match-Maker” picture card game, and the “Construction Time” block-building word activity.
• In Skills Unit 2, Lesson 1, students identify, blend, and manipulate syllables. Students sit in a circle and pick a student to be “it.” The student who is “it” says the two parts of the word separately (e.g., sun, shine, sun, shine). The student walks around the circle and taps their classmates’ heads. Then, the student who is “it” says the word blended (e.g., sunshine).
• In Skills Unit 10, Lesson 3, students orally segment two-syllable words. Students segment the sounds in the word the teacher says while doing thumb-finger taps; words include landfill, lifeguard, and lipstick.
• Materials suggest using various resources to strategically support syllabication development in single-syllable and multisyllabic words. For example, in Skills Unit 2, Lesson 2, this includes picture cards for suggested activities, using hand gestures with a closed fist, and holding a hand under the chin.
• Students continue blending syllables in Skills Unit 8, Lesson 12, transitioning to blending syllables without hand gestures. For example, the teacher writes each word broken apart, syllable by syllable. Students then sound out and blend each syllable.
• The materials’ most advanced syllable awareness skill is oral syllable segmentation of words with two syllables and up to eight phonemes in Skills Unit 10, Lesson 2. The materials incorporate a variety of activities for students to develop, practice, and reinforce this skill, such as using physical objects to work as placeholders for the syllables and sound boxes. The materials do not include activities or resources for students to develop, practice, and cumulatively reinforce the more complex skills of syllable awareness (adding, deleting, and substituting syllables).

Evaluation for 3.B.2
Materials provide systematic and direct (explicit) instruction, practice, and review to support the development of phonemic awareness skills, as outlined in the TEKS.

The materials meet the criteria for this indicator. Materials provide systematic and direct (explicit) instruction, practice, and review to support the development of phonemic awareness skills, as outlined in the TEKS.

Materials provide a systematic sequence for introducing phonemic awareness activities that begins with identifying, blending, and segmenting phonemes (the smallest unit of sound) and gradually transitions to more complex manipulation practices such as adding, deleting, and substituting phonemes. Materials include scripted direct (explicit) instruction for teaching phonemic awareness. Materials include direct (explicit) detailed guidance for connecting phonemic awareness skills to the alphabetic principle, helping to transition students from oral language activities to basic decoding and encoding. Materials incorporate a variety of activities and resources for students to develop, practice, and reinforce skills (through cumulative review).

Evidence includes but is not limited to:

Materials provide a systematic sequence for introducing phonemic awareness activities that begins with identifying, blending, and segmenting phonemes (the smallest unit of sound) and gradually transitions to more complex manipulation practices such as adding, deleting, and substituting phonemes.

• The materials provide a systematic sequence for introducing phonemic awareness. In Unit 1, the students orally blend and segment single-syllable words up to three phonemes. In Skills Unit 2, students begin with basic phoneme awareness activities as they identify the beginning sounds of words. In Unit 3, students recognize the change in a spoken word when a specified phoneme is added, changed, or removed. In Skills Unit 4, Lesson 1, students distinguish between spoken minimal pair words with /n/ and /m/ in the initial or final position by indicating which spelling, n or m, is heard. As the sequence progresses, in Unit 5, Lesson 4, students distinguish between spoken minimal pair words with /u/ and /o/ in the medial position by indicating which sound, u or o, is heard in each word. In Unit 6, students segment spoken one-syllable words of three to five phonemes into individual phonemes, including words with initial and/or final consonant blends. In Unit 7, students manipulate phonemes within base words.

Materials include scripted direct (explicit) instruction for teaching phonemic awareness.

• The materials include a teacher script. In Skills Unit 2, Lesson 3, the teacher explains that words are made up of sounds and that sounds can be combined in the same way as syllables. Materials guide: “Say the sound /sh/ as you flip over your left fist and open it.” “Say the sound /ee/ as you flip over your right fist and open it.” “Say the word she as you clap your hands.”
• The materials include scripted instruction for blending phonemes. For example, in Skills Unit 2, Lesson 5, the script reads: “Remind students the word mat has three sounds. Say the sounds in a segmented fashion: /m/…/a/…/t/. Stand in front of the class so students can mirror your actions. Say the sound /m/ as you touch your left shoulder with your right hand. Say the sound /a/ as you touch your left elbow with your right hand. Say the sound /t/ as you touch your left wrist with your right hand. Say the word mat as you slide your right hand from your left shoulder down to your left wrist.”
• Materials include scripted direct (explicit) instruction for teaching phonemic awareness. In Skills Unit 7, Lesson 1, the materials provide a scripted lesson about minimal pairs. The scripting states: “Tell students it can be difficult to tell the difference between the /ch/ sound as in chill and the /j/ sound as in Jill.” Students “say /ch/ several times.” The teacher asks, “What are your tongues doing as they say this sound?” Students “say /j/ several times.” The teacher again asks what their tongues are doing as they say this sound and says: “You are going to say word pairs. The words will be very similar, but one word will contain the /ch/ sound, and the other word will contain the /j/ sound.” Students close their eyes and listen as the teacher says the first word pair. Students identify which word contains the /ch/ sound and repeat both words to hear and feel the difference in articulation. Then they complete the word pairs. The listed words are 1. jug—chug 2. chest—jest 3. chain—Jane 4. junk—chunk 5. jeep—cheap 6. cherry—Jerry.

Materials include direct (explicit) detailed guidance for connecting phonemic awareness skills to the alphabetic principle, helping to transition students from oral language activities to basic decoding and encoding.

• The materials include direct detailed guidance for connecting phonemic awareness skills to the alphabetic principle, helping to transition students from oral language to basic encoding. In Unit 1, Lesson 2, the teacher asks students to help “spell the word made.” Students identify the first, second, and last sound in the word made. The teacher writes m on the board/chart paper; writes an a on the board/chart paper next to the m; explains that this letter a is the first part of the spelling for /ae/; writes d on the board next to a; and finally says: “If you left the word like this, it would be pronounced mad. To spell made, you need to add the letter e.”
• In Skills Unit 3, after teaching the sound, the teacher moves on to a scripted lesson connecting the sound to the letter m. Materials instruct: “Avoid using the letter name em during this activity. Instead, refer to the sound /m/. Tell students you are going to show them how to draw a picture of the /m/ sound. Draw a large lowercase m on the board and describe what you are doing using the phrases provided. (‘Start on...1. short line down 2. hump 3. hump.’) Then, say the sound /m/.”
• In Skills Unit 4, Lesson 1, the materials include the activity “Pocket Chart Chaining” for reading. In this activity, the teacher moves the n, o, and d cards to the center of a pocket chart to spell nod and asks a student to read the word using the letter and sound correspondences taught up to that lesson. Then, the teacher replaces the d card with the t card and asks the class, “If that is nod, what is this?”
• In Skills Unit 7, Lesson 13, the materials include the “Large Card Chaining” activity. In this activity, the teacher distributes the “Large Letter Cards” to the students and asks them to stand in front of the class and spell the word tin. Then, the teacher says, “If that is tin, show me thin.” The process continues until all the words in the chains are spelled.

Materials incorporate a variety of activities and resources for students to develop, practice, and cumulatively reinforce skills.

• The materials incorporate various activities to develop and practice skills through cumulative review. In Skills Unit 1, “Blending Gestures” explains and suggests gestures/body movements and other kinesthetic activities to help students visualize blending, segmenting, and manipulating phonemes orally.
• In Skills Unit 5, Lesson 1, students engage in an activity to practice segmenting. In this activity, the teacher provides “a copy of Activity Page TR 1.1 (Sound Boxes) and a handful of small objects (e.g., cubes, tiles, beans, buttons) for each student.” The teacher says words for students to break into their smallest sounds.
• In Skills Unit 5, “Pausing Point,” the scripting for “Guess the Sound!” states: “Whisper a ‘secret sound’ to a student and ask him or her to find an object in the classroom beginning with that sound. When the student points to the object, have students guess the ‘secret sound.’”
• Skills Unit 9, Lesson 15, explains, suggests, and scripts out hand gestures for a blending activity to practice and reinforce the oral blending of the words gosling, hitter, and bunny. There are suggested pictures as visual aids during the activity. Materials state: “Tell students you will say sounds for them to blend into two-syllable words. Be sure to use the finger blending motions described in the Warm-Ups.” Finger blending indicates how many sounds are in a word and allows for words with up to four sounds.

Evaluation for 3.C.1
Materials provide systematic and direct (explicit) instruction, practice, and review to develop students’ knowledge of grade-level sound-spelling patterns, as outlined in the TEKS.

The materials meet the criteria for this indicator. Materials provide systematic and direct (explicit) instruction, practice, and review to develop students’ knowledge of grade-level sound-spelling patterns, as outlined in the TEKS.

Materials provide a systematic sequence for introducing grade-level sound-spelling patterns. Materials provide scripted direct (explicit) instruction for grade-level sound-spelling patterns. Materials incorporate a variety of activities and resources for students to develop, practice, and reinforce skills (through cumulative review). Materials provide a variety of activities and resources to decode and encode words that include taught sound-spelling patterns in isolation (e.g., word lists) and in decodable connected text that builds on previous instruction (e.g., within sentences or decodable texts).

Evidence includes but is not limited to:

Materials provide a systematic sequence for introducing grade level sound spelling patterns, as outlined in the TEKS.

• The materials include a “Curriculum Map of Skills” in the “Planning Documents” section. The map provides a general view of the systematic sequence of instruction on digraphs. For example, in Skills Unit 7, the teacher introduces students to consonant digraphs /ch/, /sh/, /th/, /th/, /qu/, and /ng/. Then, in Skills Unit 8, the teacher reviews the digraphs in combination with vowel sounds and other sounds and spellings. In Skills Unit 10, the teacher introduces reading and spelling words with separated digraphs (i.e., CVCE).

Materials provide scripted direct (explicit) instruction for grade level sound spelling patterns.

• The materials provide scripted direct instruction for grade-level sound-spelling digraph patterns. For example, in Skills Unit 7, Lesson 1, the teacher tells the new sound /ch/ to the students and has them say the sound several times, then has them “repeat a number of words having the /ch/ sound at the beginning: cheap, chip, cherries, chill, chin.” To introduce the spelling of the digraph, the teacher writes ch on the board, covers the letter h, and explains that “the letter c by itself is usually a picture of /k/.” Then, the teacher covers the letter c and tells students that “the letter h by itself is usually a picture of /h/.” Finally, the teacher circles the spelling ch and explains that “the two letters c and h in this order stand to the sound /ch/.”
• The materials provide scripted direct instruction for grade-level sound-spelling digraph patterns. In Unit 7, Lesson 4, scripting states: “Write the spelling th on the board/chart paper, following the directions in the sidebar. Point out the spelling th is made up of two letters. Remind students of the digraphs /ch/ and /sh/ learned in earlier lessons. In each case, two letters work together as a team to make a single sound. Cover the letter h with your hand. Explain that the letter t by itself is usually a picture of /t/. Cover the letter t with your hand. Explain that the letter h by itself is usually a picture of /h/. Circle the spelling th and explain that these two letters t and h, in this order, stand for the sound /th/.”
• In Skills 10, Lesson 7, the teacher explicitly instructs students about a spelling pattern beyond grade-level standards. During “Teacher Modeling,” the teacher tells students that /ae/ has a different spelling than previously studied. The teacher draws a larger lowercase a_e on the board and explains that both letters work together as a team for /ae/ The teacher explains that they will fill in the space between the a_e with a letter for the sound that comes after /ae/. The teacher models adding g and m to make the word game. The teacher models the relationship between a_e by drawing a V-shaped mark connecting the a and the e.

Materials incorporate a variety of activities and resources for students to develop, practice, and reinforce skills (through cumulative review).

• The materials incorporate a variety of activities and resources for students to develop, practice, and reinforce skills. For example, in Skills Unit 7, Lesson 2, students practice the digraphs ch and sh using the “Chaining Folders” activity, in which they arrange letter cards to spell a series of words pronounced by the teacher.
• In Skills Unit 8, Lesson 1, the students practice and review the digraph th in its voiced and unvoiced sounds during the sound/spelling review in the lesson warm-up.
• Skills Unit 10, Lesson 29, provides opportunities to develop, practice, and reinforce skills. Students participate in a “Large Letter Changing” activity reviewing the “Magic E.” Students change the words cut to cute, cub to cube, and not to note. Partners also read Lunch Trades, which reinforces previously taught spelling patterns along with the “Magic E.”

Materials provide a variety of activities and resources to decode and encode words that include taught sound spelling patterns in isolation (e.g., word lists) and in decodable connected text that builds on previous instruction (e.g., within sentences or decodable texts).

• The materials provide a variety of activities and resources to encode words that include taught sound-spelling patterns in isolation. Skills Unit 7, Lesson 4, includes an encoding activity called “Student Chaining.” In this activity, the teacher says words to students (e.g., chin), and students move letter and digraph cards to form the word. In an additional encoding activity in the digital component, “Meet the Spelling Activity Page,” materials instruct: “Tell students they will practice writing letters of the /th/ sound. Work as a group, guiding students to complete each item in the rows of spellings as you model the writing process. Trace the gray dotted spellings in the row first. Then write the spellings, using the black dots as starting points. Say the sound as you finish each spelling. At the bottom of the page, show students how to read and trace the word thud. Have students trace and write the word using the black dots to start each letter. Turn to the back of the activity page. Ask students to read each word, identify the matching picture, and write the word on the corresponding line. Model each step so students can follow along.”
• The materials provide a variety of activities and resources for students to decode words that include taught sound-spelling patterns in isolation. In Skills Unit 8, Lesson 1, the teacher uses a table to classify words by the digraph they contain (i.e., th, sh, and ng); students decode the words in the table. Also in this lesson, students have an opportunity to read digraphs in the “Big Book.” Students follow along as the teacher reads Sam and the Fish and read words such as this, then, and fish.
• In Skills Unit 5, Lesson 1, students complete a “Spelling Activity Page.” Instructions read: “At the bottom of the page, show students how to read and trace the word big. Have students trace and write the word using the black dots to start each letter. Remind students that English is written from left to right. (You may wish to draw an arrow to indicate directionality.) Turn to the back of the activity page. Ask students to look at and name the picture. Tell them to say the name again slowly, sound by sound, as they circle the sound picture for each sound. When they finish, they should write the word on the corresponding line.”
• The “Instructional Strategies for High-Frequency Words” resource states, “Use the following strategies and routines to teach and reinforce encoding grade-level sound-spelling patterns and regular and irregular high-frequency words insolation and in context.” The teacher can use the scope and sequence to determine what is taught. In Unit 3, to support student learning when they begin writing words, the teacher introduces the “Dictation Journal,” “Activity Book” exercises, and “Grade K Blending Picture Cards and Sound Cards,” found under “Ancillary Components” on the resource site. Additional practice opportunities are found in the Dictation Journal and/or “Writing Activities” as well as via the “Challenge” activity provided during or after a lesson.
• During “Instruction and Practice,” the teacher tells students they will write words and sentences they hear the teacher say. The script says: “Choose a Tricky Word or word that follows the target sound-spelling pattern (e.g., short vowels, blends, digraphs). For example, say: ship. Say it again very slowly, focusing on each sound. Think aloud and ask questions as you write the word on the board. For example, say: /sh/. That’s a digraph. Which two letters make the /sh/ sound? Yes, s and h! Now I hear /i/….” Next, the teacher uses the word in a short sentence and uses fingers to count the number of words in the sentence (“The ship is big.”) The teacher asks, “How many words did you hear?” The teacher repeats the sentence, draws lines to represent each word, and points to each line. Finally, the teacher writes the four words and puts a space between the words to separate them.
• During “Group Practice,” the teacher dictates another word that follows the sound-spelling pattern, and students write the word in their Dictation Journal or on primary lined writing paper. The teacher calls on a few students to show their word, and students share what they noticed about the word (digraphs, short vowels, etc.) Then, the teacher dictates another word in a sentence, and students follow the same routine. The teacher circulates as students encode each word. Next, the teacher calls on another student to show the transcribed phrase. As a group, the class discusses, pointing out new and previously learned patterns.
• For “Independent Practice,” students repeat the same routine, and the teacher selects a word and repeats it to the class. The teacher says a short phrase or sentence that contains the target word as well as previously learned spelling patterns. Students underline or identify the target pattern.

Evaluation for 3.C.2
Materials provide systematic and direct (explicit) instruction, practice, and review related to accurately identifying, reading, and writing regular and irregular high-frequency words.

The materials meet the criteria for this indicator. Materials provide systematic and direct (explicit) instruction, practice, and review related to accurately identifying and reading regular and irregular high-frequency words.

Materials provide a systematic sequence for introducing regular and irregular high-frequency words. Materials provide scripted direct (explicit) instruction for decoding and encoding regular and irregular high-frequency words. Materials incorporate a variety of activities and resources for students to develop, practice, and reinforce skills (through cumulative review). Materials provide a variety of activities and resources for students to recognize, read, and write high-frequency words in isolation (e.g., word lists) and in connected text (e.g., within sentences or decodable texts).

Evidence includes but is not limited to:

Materials provide a systematic sequence for introducing regular and irregular high frequency words.

• The materials provide a systematic sequence for introducing irregular high-frequency words. In the “Curriculum Map,” “Tricky Word” instruction begins in Skills Unit 3 with one, two, and three. The sequence continues through Skills Unit 8 with the following order: a, the, blue, yellow, look, I, are, little, down, out, of, funny, all, was, from, when, word, why, to, where, no, what, so, which, said, says, were, here, there, he, she, we, be, me, they, their, my, by, you, your.
• In each Skills Unit, there are regular high-frequency words. For example, in Skills Unit 3, students learn the following Dolch Words and Fry’s Instant Words: am, at, did, it, got.
• Each Skills Unit contains a sequence with the decodable high-frequency words aligned to the phonics lesson. For example, in Skills Unit 7, students learn the following Fry’s Instant Words: an, and, as, ask, at, big, but, can, cut, did, end, get, got, had, hand, has, help, him, his, if, in, is, it, its, just, land, last, left, let, list, man, men, must, nest, not, on, plant, run, set, sit, stop, up, us, went.

Materials provide scripted direct (explicit) instruction for decoding and encoding regular and irregular high frequency words.

• In Skills Unit 5, “Tricky Word: Blue,” the teacher writes blue on the board and has students think about how to pronounce blue. The teacher states, “We pronounce this word /b/ /l/ /oo/ as in ‘The sky is blue.’” The teacher shows the letters bl and explains this first tricky part. The teacher tells students that “these two letters work together to make the /b/ /l/ sound.” The teacher underlines the ue and tells students that ue work together to make /oo/. The teacher tells students that when reading blue, they must “remember to pronounce b and l as /b/ /l/ and the letters u and e as /oo/.” When encoding, the teacher tells students to remember “to spell the /b/ /l/ sound with the letters b and l and the /oo/ sound with the letters u and e.”
• The materials provide explicit instruction for high-frequency words that are regular and irregular. Irregular words are called Tricky Words (e.g., one, two, three in Skills Unit 3, Lesson 13). For the Tricky Word one, materials instruct teachers: “Draw one dot on the board/chart paper. Ask students how many it is, prompting students to say one aloud. Then write the numeral ‘1’ on the board/chart paper. Ask students how many it is, prompting students to say one aloud. Then write the numeral ‘1’ on the board/chart paper. Tell students that this is one way to write one as a number. Tell students that we write one this way in math. Write the word one on the board/chart paper, and tell students that this is another way to write one. Tell students that this is the way we use one when reading and writing. Write the sound picture o on the board/chart paper, and ask students what sound it makes (/o/). Then draw their attention to the word one, and point out that it starts with the sound picture o. Ask if one starts with the sound /o/. As needed, explain that it does not. Tell students that one is a Tricky Word because it does not follow the rules. Reinforce that Tricky Words are words that do not follow the sound rules for the sound pictures that they have learned so far. Finally, underline the word one and explain that we underline it so we know we cannot sound it out, we just have to remember how to say it.”
• During Skills units, in “Pocket Chart Chaining for Spelling,” the teacher explicitly teaches decoding and encoding of regular high-frequency words. For example, in Skills Unit 6, Lesson 2, the teacher states a word and models breaking it up into sounds. The students repeat the first sound and identify the letter in the pocket chart. The teacher states each sound, and students identify the letter in the pocket chart. The teacher models reading the word “letter sound by letter sound, to check for spelling accuracy.” The teacher states the word again and then asks for a new word with one sound substituted. The teacher picks a student to come to the pocket chart and replace the letter. The teacher does this chaining activity to show the regular high-frequency word stop.
• In Skills Unit 9, “Tricky Word: There,” the teacher writes there on the board and asks students to blend and pronounce it. The teacher tells the students that “this word is pronounced /th/ /æ/ /r/ as in ‘He kicked the ball over there.’” The teacher circles the th and explains that “it is pronounced just as one would expect, /th/.” The teacher underlines the ere and tells the students these letters make up the tricky part of the word: “They work differently than in here… these letters work together to stand for the /æ/ /r/ sounds.” The teacher tells the students to “remember to pronounce the letters ere and /æ/ /r/.” For encoding, the teacher tells the students that “when writing there, they need to remember to spell the /æ/ /r/ sounds with the letters ere.”

Materials incorporate a variety of activities and resources for students to develop, practice, and cumulatively reinforce skills.

• The materials include activities and resources that support students’ development of high-frequency word knowledge. In Skills Unit 3, “Activity Book,” there is a Tricky Word mini-book for reviewing one, two, and three. Students cut out the mini-book, fold it to show the tricky word one on the first page, and read it aloud to the teacher while they run a finger under the words and pictures as they read.
• In Skills Unit 4, Lesson 14, the Activity Book has “Circle the Word” and “Connect It” activities, which feature current and previously taught words. In Circle the Word, the students circle the previously taught high-frequency word. During Connect It, the students circle the high-frequency word that is connected to a picture in the Activity Book.
• In Skills Unit 5, the material uses the yellow “Proceed with Caution” index card activity. Students write the high-frequency word on a yellow index card, which alerts the students to the word not following taught spelling patterns. There is also oral identification of Tricky Words. The teacher says “an oral sentence using one of the Tricky Words” and asks the class “to listen carefully to orally identify the Tricky Word in the sentence, while another student points to the word on the wall.”
• The materials incorporate a variety of activities and resources for students to develop, practice and cumulatively reinforce writing simple VC and CVC words. In Skills Unit 5, Lesson 1, the “Student Chaining” activity has students write CVC words with initial and final b. The materials do not include writing activities or resources focused on regular and irregular high-frequency words in this unit.

Materials provide a variety of activities for students to recognize, read, and write high frequency words in isolation (e.g., word lists) and in connected text (e.g., within sentences or decodable texts).

• The materials provide opportunities for students to practice high-frequency words in isolation and in context. In Skills Unit 4, the teacher writes and and asks students to read the word on the board. Students read the sentence “I am…and….”
• The materials provide students with opportunities to write high-frequency words in pre-printed sentences. In Skills Unit 6, students copy the word big into a pre-printed sentence. Sentences include “The (visual of a plane) is…. The (visual of a firetruck) is…. The (visual of a plane) and the (visual of a firetruck) are….” While students write words in isolation or cloze activities, the materials do not include activities for students to write high-frequency words in sentences.
• In Unit 8, Lesson 11, students re-read On the Bus with partners. On the Bus contains high-frequency words such as the and one.
• The “Instructional Strategies for High-Frequency Words” resource states, “Use the following strategies and routines to teach and reinforce encoding grade-level sound-spelling patterns and regular and irregular high-frequency words insolation and in context.” The teacher can use the Scope and Sequence to determine what is taught. In Unit 3, to support student learning when they begin writing words, the teacher introduces the “Dictation Journal,” “Activity Book” exercises, and “Grade K Blending Picture Cards and Sound Cards,” found under “Ancillary Components” on the resource site. Additional practice opportunities are found in the Dictation Journal and/or “Writing Activities” as well as via the “Challenge” activity provided during or after a lesson.
• In Skills Unit 3, Lessons 13–14, students learn high-frequency words one, two, and three. The teacher uses a routine to guide the instruction: 1) The teacher draws two dots on the board and asks students how many there are, prompting students to say two aloud. 2) The teacher writes the numeral 2, telling students this is one way to write two as a number and that it is represented this way in math. 3) The teacher writes the word two on the board and tells students this is another way to write two, used during reading and writing. 3) The teacher uses letter pictures to show how to construct the word two, explaining that not all English words “play by the rules.” Some parts are pronounced clearly, but one or two letters are tricky. 4) Students use picture cards to read words. 5) Students complete an activity page that includes a phrase. The teacher calls on individual students to read each phrase on the page aloud. The teacher asks students which two Tricky Words they learned in the lesson.
• In Skills Unit 6, students learn the Tricky Words is/are. As part of the routine, the “Teacher Note” states: “Since students have learned that the letter s can represent the /z/ sound, they can read the word is as a decodable word. We have chosen to include the word is in this Tricky Word lesson and the Picture Reader, for two reasons: it is a high-frequency word that merits additional practice to ensure automatic student recognition, and it is also useful to pair reading of sentences that compare and contrast the use of is and the new Tricky Word are.” The teacher uses sentence frames with students to identify the tricky parts, such as “The car is fast. The boy is mad, but the boys…mad. (are). The drinks are cold, but the drink…cold. (is).” On Activity Page 6.1, students read each sentence and then say and write either the word is or are in the blank space to complete the sentence.
   

Evaluation for 3.C.3
Materials include systematic and direct (explicit) instruction, practice, and review related to using knowledge and application of syllabication to decode and encode one-syllable or multisyllabic words.

Evaluation for 3.C.4
Materials connect phonics instruction to meaning by providing systematic and direct (explicit) instruction, practice, and review related to developing morphological awareness.

Evaluation for 3.D.1
Materials provide frequent opportunities for students to practice and develop word reading fluency, by using knowledge of grade-level phonics skills to read decodable connected texts with accuracy and automaticity.

The materials meet the criteria for this indicator. Materials provide frequent opportunities for students to practice and develop word reading fluency by using knowledge of grade-level phonics skills to read decodable connected texts with accuracy and automaticity.

Materials include embedded modeling and practice with word lists, decodable phrases/sentences, and decodable connected texts in the lesson. Materials provide practice activities for word reading fluency in a variety of settings (e.g., independently, in partners, in guided small groups, etc.). Materials provide a variety of grade-level decodable connected texts that are aligned to the phonics scope and sequence.

Evidence includes but is not limited to:

Materials include embedded modeling and practice with word lists, decodable phrases/sentences, and decodable texts in the lesson.

• The materials include embedded modeling and practice with decodable sentences. In Skills Unit 5, Lesson 12, students practice reading decodable phrases using Digital Component 12.2. The students then select the picture that best matches the phrase. The teacher demonstrates the activity until students are ready to work independently.
• The materials include embedded modeling and practice with decodable connected texts. For example, in Skills Unit 4, Lesson 12, the teacher first demonstrates how to read the decodable “Big Book” Pet Fun. Then, the teacher reads the decodable book a second time, pausing and allowing students the opportunity to practice decoding the words in the book.
• In Skills Unit 9, Lesson 9, the teacher models reading and writing in a “Tricky Word” activity, with the words so, where, and no. The teacher writes the word so on the board and explains the word is an open syllable, causing the o to make a long sound; the teacher then blends the sounds and reads the word. The teacher calls on a student to repeat the process with the word no.
• The materials included embedded modeling and practice with word lists. The materials provide the Dolch and Fry Word Lists for students to use throughout the Skills Units. Each week, the teacher models reading a shortlist of words to students that focuses on sounds they have been learning and practicing. On the lists, there are always words from the Dolch and Fry Lists. For example, the teacher models a word from one of the lists in Skills Unit 5: “Say the first word for the students to segment (e.g., big). Students segment the phonemes and push an object into the boxes for each sound (from left to right). Then students run their fingers under the boxes (from left to right) as they repeat the blended word. If students struggle, say the word again by stretching out the sounds (e.g., ‘/bbbbb-iiiiii-ggggg/’). Continue with the next word.”

Materials provide practice activities for word reading fluency in a variety of settings (e.g., independently, in partners, in guided small groups, etc.)

• In Skills Unit 5, Lesson 7, students have the option to read with partners for group differentiation. Students can choose a book from the Kit “Student Reader.”
• In Skills Unit 6, Lesson 2 provides whole group word reading practice opportunities. The teacher reads Kit and Stan aloud. The students track print from top to bottom and left to right.
• The “Pausing Point” section includes activities that can be done independently, in pairs, in small groups, and/or as a whole group. For example, the Skills Unit 8 Pausing Point includes the activity “Shopping for Spellings.” The teacher provides each student with a paper bag. Materials instruct: “Bags should have one spelling corresponding to single-or double-letter spellings written on the outside. Review the sounds of the spellings. Spread a set of decodable word cards out on the floor and tell students they are going shopping! They should take their bags and fill them with cards containing the same spelling that is written on their bag. After students have collected all the cards, they should take turns sharing what they ‘bought’ on the shopping trip.” The materials guide teachers to provide practice with word reading fluency in small groups.
• Skills Unit 9, Lesson 9, provides independent practice. The students read On the Mat with purpose and understanding and answer oral literal and inferential questions about the story’s key details.

Materials provide a variety of grade level decodable texts that are aligned to the phonics scope and sequence.

• The materials align to the phonics scope and sequence for word reading fluency. The teacher introduces students to the first decodable book, Pet Fun, at the end of Unit 4. Students read short phrases that make up the story after having listened to the teacher read the text earlier in the unit. In addition, in the Appendix, sections titled “Decodable Text” and “The Power of Decodable Text” provide further information on the decodable text.
• In Skills Unit 6, students read Kit, practicing the CCVC sound-spelling pattern. This text aligns with the scope and sequence of Unit 6.
• The materials provide a variety of grade-level decodable connected texts. For example, the Skills Unit 8 Pausing Point has students read the decodable reader The Band independently or with a partner. The text includes double letters such as zz, ll, and ss.

Evaluation for 4.1
Materials include developmentally appropriate diagnostic tools (e.g., formative and summative) and guidance for teachers to measure and monitor student progress.

The instructional materials meet the criteria for this indicator. Materials include developmentally appropriate diagnostic tools (e.g., formative and summative) and guidance for teachers to measure and monitor student progress.

Materials include a variety of diagnostic tools that are developmentally appropriate. Materials provide clear, consistent directions for accurate administration of diagnostic tools. Materials include data management tools for tracking individual and whole class student progress.

Evidence includes but is not limited to:

Materials include a variety of diagnostic tools that are developmentally appropriate.

• The materials include various diagnostic tools that are developmentally appropriate. For example, Skills Unit 2 provides a blending pretest, formative assessments of blending, a check for understanding with observational notes on students completing gradual-release-method independent activities collected daily, and whole class oral blending assessments. The unit assessments consist of orally blending syllables and orally blending phonemes.
• Skills Unit 10 has formal and informal diagnostic tools focused on the instruction aligned with the continuum of phonological awareness and phonics skills. Specifically, it assesses oral segmenting, letter names and letter sounds, oral reading of decodable stories, and using letter-sound relationships to decode actual CVC words. For example, in Skills Unit 10, Lesson 11, students independently read A Fine Hike, which the teacher uses as a diagnostic tool to assess students’ mastery of the previously taught i_e spelling pattern.
• In “Program Resources,” an “Assessments Overview” provides information on each assessment: its purpose, additional information, and how to use the data. There is a “Question and Test Interoperability (QTI) Assessment Guide” with digitally implemented assessments in grades K–2 to measure students’ independent application of literacy skills. For example, in Skills Unit 2, Lesson 3, there is an “Oral Blending Observation Record” for the teacher to note the students’ blending ability. Also within this unit, in Lesson 10, there is a “Writing Strokes Assessment” for the teacher to assess students’ writing strokes.
• The materials include an assessment of high-frequency words. This is an optional assessment of words from the Dolch Sight Word List. At the beginning of Unit 10, the teacher shows each student the Dolch Word List. The teacher asks the student to read each word from the list, proceeding in order from top to bottom.

Materials provide clear, consistent directions for accurate administration of diagnostic tools.

• The materials include guidance to help the teacher efficiently administer the assessments. In the Skills Unit 2 “Activity Book,” “Assessment 10.3,” materials instruct the teacher, “Orally segment each word and have students circle the picture.”
• In Skills Unit 2, the scripting for one section of the end-of-unit assessment states: “STUDENT PERFORMANCE ASSESSMENT (25 MIN.) Part 1 (Writing Strokes): Distribute Activity Pages 10.1 and 10.2. Ask students to print their names on the activity pages. Provide assistance for those who need it. Provide each student with a small piece of crayon. Instruct students to copy each shape on the activity pages. Use the assessment to guide remediation and reteaching. Keep copies of the assessment in your assessment portfolio.”
• The Skills Unit 6 assessment directions tell the teacher: “As you listen to each student, make note of any words misread, writing what the student said paired with the actual word. Also, note the approach the student uses when they encounter a word they do not immediately recognize: do they systematically try to sound the word, letter by letter, guess based on the initial sound of the word, or fail to respond at all? Look for any patterns in an individual student’s errors or in the class as a whole.”
• The materials include support for teachers when observing students during an assessment. For example, in Skills Unit 7, Lesson 13 includes the following support for students struggling with the concept: “Prior to segmenting, tell students you will show them pictures of some of the words they will segment. Point to the picture of the hand crushing the soda can and say crush, asking students to repeat. Then point to and name each pictured item or action, asking students to repeat. Proceed with the segmenting of the words; note that there is no picture support for the word things.”
• Skills Unit 10 “Advance Preparation Guides” (Lessons 26–28) help teachers administer the “Endof-Year Student Performance Assessment.” They state: “Part 1: Word Reading Assessment is an assessment of students’ ability to read decodable words and assesses students’ ability to read Tricky Words. Part 1 should be administered to the entire class simultaneously. Part 2: Sound Writing Assessment assesses knowledge of spelling-sound correspondences. Given a sound, students must write the corresponding spelling.” Based on student performance, the materials guide the teacher on which part to administer in a whole group setting or an individual setting. Materials state: “Score the assessment prior to Lesson 27. Record results on the Word Reading Assessment Summary Sheets in Teacher Resources and on Activity Page 26.3. Words in Part 1A, rows 1–10, assess students’ knowledge of the sound/spellings taught in kindergarten. Words in Part 1B, rows 1–10, assess students’ knowledge of Tricky Words.”

Materials include data management tools for tracking individual and whole class student progress.

• The materials include (digital and/or hard copy) data management tools for tracking individual and whole class student progress and data. For example, the Skills Unit 1 “Formal Assessment” provides observational record tools: “Anecdotal Skills Record Unit 1” and “Blending Pretest Class Record Sheet.”
• In the “Teacher Resources” section of each Skills Unit, there are multiple forms and supports for teachers to keep track of student progress. In Unit 2, there is the “Oral Blending Observation Record” and the “Writing Strokes Assessment Class Summary Sheet.”
• In Skills Unit 5, in the Teacher Resources, there is a digital copy of the “Letter Sounds Observation Record” for recording independent student performance.
• There is an “Oral Segmenting Observation Record” in the Teacher Resources of Skills Unit 7. The instructions on using this chart read: “Throughout the unit, as you ask students to orally segment words, record each student’s performance using the legend below or one that you devise. Be sure to note whether or not the student correctly segmented the word. If the student does not correctly segment the word, record the segmented sounds the student produced next to the word given. At the end of each half of the unit, tabulate the student’s performance in the subtotal column.”
• Skills Unit 10 provides “Observational Record” documents for oral segmenting and sounds and letter review. The materials have downloadable “Assessment Guidance” for each domain, webinars for the teacher to access to understand assessments, and digital recording-keeping files for individual and class progress tracking under “Program Resources.”
   

Evaluation for 4.2
Materials include integrated progress monitoring tools, with specific guidance on frequency of use.

The materials meet the criteria for this indicator. Materials include integrated progress monitoring tools, with specific guidance on frequency of use.

Materials include progress monitoring tools that systematically and accurately measure students’ acquisition of grade-level skills. However, the materials’ assessments are not all progress monitoring tools, and progress monitoring is optional. Materials include specific guidance on determining frequency of progress monitoring based on students’ strengths and needs.

Evidence includes but is not limited to:

Materials include progress monitoring tools that systematically and accurately measure students’ acquisition of grade level skills.

• The materials include some progress monitoring tools that routinely and systematically assess students’ acquisition of grade-level skills. For example, in Skills Units 1 and 2, the assessment tasks target specific phonemic awareness skills, such as oral blending, so that teachers can pinpoint specific areas of need. The teacher listens to students blend the syllables and notes each student’s blending ability in the “Oral Blending Observation Record.”
• In Skills Units 5 and 6, the materials provide a “Student Performance Assessment.” The Unit 5 assessment includes two parts. Part 1 is for all students and directs the teacher to pronounce ten one-syllable CVC words with the sound-spellings taught in the unit. Part 2 requires the teacher to assess students individually if they scored seven or fewer points on Part 1. Each student reads from a set of ten words printed on separate cards. Unit 6 assesses students’ knowledge of letter names and rhymes using printed activity pages. Next, there is a two-part assessment of students’ ability to read words with consonant clusters. However, this tool is not a tool for progress monitoring.
• In Skills Unit 7, Lesson 11, students pronounce ten one-syllable CVCC or CCVC words for progress monitoring. The teacher records the results on the Unit 7 “Assessment Record Sheet” in the “Teacher Resources” section of the “Teacher Guide.”
• In Skills Unit 8, the materials include a “Whole Group Word Recognition Assessment.” The teacher administers the group assessment to all students as a screening tool designed to determine which students have or have not mastered the basic code knowledge. However, this tool is not a tool for progress monitoring.
• During Skills Unit 9, the materials include an “Assessment for Tricky Words (high-frequency) and Uppercase Letters.” Words include which, said, and says. Letters include S, T, U, V, and W.
• In Skills Unit 10, Lessons 26–28, there are “End-of-the-Year Student Performance Assessments.” Lesson 26, Part 1A, assesses students’ ability to read decodable words. Part 1B assesses students’ ability to read “Tricky Words.” This assessment is not for progress monitoring.

Materials include specific guidance on determining frequency of progress monitoring based on students’ strengths and needs.

• There is a clock icon throughout the lessons where the materials suggest a quick check or progress monitoring opportunity. For example, in Unit 2, Lesson 5, the directions read: “Observation: Oral Blending Observation Record: As you listen to students blend the sounds, make notes regarding their individual blending ability in the Oral Blending Observation Record.”
• Progress monitoring in the Skills units is “Optional.” For example, in Skills Unit 8, Lesson 20, progress monitoring occurs by making a copy of the word cards on Activity Page TR 20.1, cutting the words apart, and copying the record sheet (Activity Page TR 20.2) for each student. The materials do not inform the teacher about monitoring frequency, but they state to follow “the directions in Lesson 15 for Progress Monitoring.” Lesson 15 states: “Over the course of the next several lessons, you will continue to administer Student Performance Assessments to develop a clear picture of each student’s skills at this point in time. Students who score poorly on the majority of the assessments should be considered for a remediation group in lieu of proceeding to Units 9 and 10.”
• The materials specify how often to progress monitor or include timelines for checking progress. For students in Tier 1, the materials recommend progress monitoring 3 times a year (BOY, MOY, EOY). For students in Tier 2, the materials recommend progress monitoring once a week. For students in Tier 3, the materials recommend progress monitoring 1–2 times a week.

Evaluation for 4.3
Materials include guidance for teachers to analyze and respond to data from diagnostic tools.

The materials meet the criteria for this indicator. Materials include guidance for teachers to analyze and respond to data from diagnostic tools.

Materials support teachers’ analysis of diagnostic data to inform response to individual students’ strengths and needs. Diagnostic tools provide teachers with guidance on how to plan and differentiate instruction based on student data. Materials include a variety of resources that align to data, allowing teachers to plan different activities in response to student data.

Evidence includes but is not limited to:

Materials support teachers’ analysis of diagnostic data to inform response to individual students’ strengths and needs.

• Skills Unit 2, Lesson 10, provides analysis guidance to the teacher: “Mark students’ scores in the Record Sheet for Unit 2 Student Performance Assessment located in Teacher Resources. Analyze each student’s score as follows: 8–10 points excellent; 6–7 points good; 5 or fewer points weak. Make note of any error patterns you notice for particular students. For example, are students confused by words that end the same (e.g., choosing bee for knee or spoon for moon)? This might indicate the student is not paying attention to the beginning sound. Provide practice for students whose performance falls in the weak range using Additional Support activities and any of the following Pausing Point sections. Additional Considerations, when identifying activities/assignments to grade, should provide clear and accurate feedback to students and teachers on what needs to be improved and what students clearly understand. Think aloud, ‘Ask yourself: Are you grading for learning or are you grading for completion?’”
• Skills Unit 3, Lesson 12, provides interpretation and guidance for data use to inform instruction: “Scoring is based on one point assigned for every sound in a word which is read correctly. Interpret scores as follows: 26 or more points excellent; 21–25 points good; 15–20 points fair; less than 15 points poor. Further analyze each student’s errors to determine whether there are one or more individual letter-sound correspondences that are particularly problematic. The subtotals for each sound/spelling at the bottom of the record sheet should facilitate the identification of specific problem areas. Also examine whether there are mispronunciations that occur more frequently in a given position in words (i.e., does the student read the initial sound correctly, but misread either the middle and/or final sound?)”
• Skills Unit 8, Lesson 16, provides analysis and guidance on using data to inform instruction: “Assign one point for each word read correctly. Students who score 27–30 correct on either the Pseudoword or Real Word Reading Assessment have good decoding skills. If a student scores 26 or fewer points, you should administer the Code Knowledge Diagnostic Assessment on another day. Record students’ names and scores on the appropriate record sheet from the Teacher Resources section.” Each line of either the “Pseudoword Reading” or “Real Word Reading Assessment” assesses the ability to read different kinds of words.
• In Unit 10, Lesson 28, the “Scoring and Analysis” section for the “Uppercase Letter Names Assessment” informs the teacher to “record students’ names, scores, and any letters missed on the Uppercase Letter Names Assessment Summary Sheet located in Teacher Resources and refer to the Analysis and Interpretation of the End-of-Year Assessment sheet in Teacher Resources.” This section of the “Teacher Guide” includes an “Interpreting Assessment Scores” table with student scores for “Word Recognition” and “Sound Writing” and a recommendation. For example, if a student scores 14 or 15 correct on Word Reading, the recommendation is “this student has ADEQUATE preparation for Grade 1 Skills instruction.” There is a further breakdown for students who score “Outstanding” or “Adequate” and what the student is ready to do.

Diagnostic tools provide teachers with guidance on how to plan and differentiate instruction based on student data.

• The Skills Unit 5 Teacher Guide provides guidance for planning and differentiating: “The subtotals for each sound/spelling at the bottom of the record sheet should facilitate the identification of specific problem areas. Also examine whether there are mispronunciations that occur more frequently in a given position in words (i.e., does the student read the initial sound correctly, but misread either the medial and/or final sound?) Finally, examine whether the student succeeded in reading words correctly on the second attempt. If so, the student may be rushing and may benefit from explicit instruction to slow down and look at each letter in a word sequentially, left to right. Students who score in the fair–poor range are at risk of experiencing considerable difficulty in Unit 6. If a number of students in the classroom fall into this category, it is strongly recommended that you provide substantial practice and remediation using the activities in the Additional Support section at the end of each lesson and the Pausing Point. Students who do not understand the concept of blending or who have not mastered the nine letter-sound correspondences taught in Unit 5 will only fall further behind if they move on to Unit 6 without remediation.”
• The resource to use in response to student data is primarily the “Pausing Point” section in the “Teacher Activity Guide.” In Unit 7, the materials provide the general information: “With the conclusion of Unit 7, if a significant number of students are having difficulty with any of the objectives, pause here and spend additional time reviewing the material.”
• Skills Unit 9, Lesson 10, provides guidance for planning and differentiating: “Students scoring 10 or below would benefit from Additional Support activities to practice Tricky Words found at the end of the lesson.”
• There is guidance on how to differentiate instruction based on student data. In Skills Unit 10, Lessons 6, 16, and 25 include differentiated instruction. For example, in Lesson 6, differentiated instruction is designated for 20 minutes with two groups. Group 2 completes Activity Page 6.3 and a “Digital Component.” Group 1 also completes Activity Page 6.3. There are also “Additional Support” sections with steps for students needing extra practice. Lesson 6 has Additional Support for “Reading and Tricky Words.” For more help with Tricky Words, the resources instruct the teacher to make “one copy of the Activity Page.”

Materials include a variety of resources that align to data, allowing teachers to plan different activities in response to student data.

• The materials provide various student resources to respond to students’ academic performance. For example, there is a list of additional activities to teach and practice the Unit Skills 3 content, which is in the Pausing Point section. It is recommended that the teacher pause for four or five days to provide targeted remediation for individuals or groups of students in any areas in which they performed poorly on the end-of-unit assessment.
• Skills Unit 4, Lesson 11, includes an Additional Support activity for segmenting words. The teacher says a word; the students repeat the word, break the word into its sounds, push an object into a box (from left to right) for each phoneme, and finish by running their finger (from left to right) under the boxes to repeat the whole word. The activity includes pen, ten, and hip.
• Skills Unit 6, Lesson 10, provides additional support for foundational skills with a “Push Pull” activity to help build consonant blends and a “Chain and Copy” activity for spelling consonant blends.
• In Unit 9, Lesson 4, there is a review for uppercase letters with large letter cards and an “Activity Book” and reader that reinforce skills. In addition, the materials guide the teacher to use word chains to help build syllable patterns as well as a word list and reading selections to build on skills the students have not mastered.

Evaluation for 5.1
Materials include guidance, scaffolds, supports, and extensions that maximize student learning potential.

The materials partially meet the criteria for this indicator. Materials include some guidance, scaffolds, supports, and extensions that maximize student learning potential.

Materials provide targeted instruction and activities to scaffold learning for students who have not yet mastered grade-level foundational phonics skills. Materials provide some targeted instruction or activities to accelerate learning for students who have achieved grade-level mastery of foundational phonics skills. Materials provide enrichment activities for all levels of learners.

Evidence includes but is not limited to:

Materials provide targeted instruction and activities to scaffold learning for students who have not yet mastered grade level foundational phonics skills.

• The Skills Unit 2 “Pausing Point” section includes activities for additional help with blending syllables. For example, students can play “I Spy.” For this activity, materials instruct the teacher: “Look around the room and mentally note items with names containing three sounds (e.g., a book, a rug, a light, a pen, a box). Say to the class, ‘I spy with my little eye a /b/…/oo/…/k/.’ Have students blend the word, using the arm motions, and point to the object in the room. Repeat until students have had sufficient blending practice.”
• The materials include a “Foundational Skills Remediation” section for reteaching and/or more practice with particular skills. For example, if a student needs additional support with segmenting, the “Foundational Skills Remediation” section in Skills Unit 4, Lesson 1, includes a “Give Me a Word” activity. Teacher instructions read: “Gather a collection of any variety of blocks (e.g., unit blocks or locking cubes). Tell students you will provide a sound and want them to say a word containing the sound. For example: ‘Give me a word starting with /n/.’ (If students struggle to think of a word, prompt them to look around the room for objects starting with the target sound.) As students provide words containing the targeted phoneme, give them a block. With each block, students get a turn to place it, building a collective structure as the game continues.”
• In Unit 7, the Pausing Point features “Stories for Assessment and Enrichment.” Students read Meg’s Tots.
• There is an “Additional Support” section at the end of the lessons to help with remediation. An example in Unit 8, Lesson 6, states: “MORE HELP SPELLING CONSONANT CLUSTERS AND DIGRAPHS: Dictation with Words. Have students take out a pencil and a piece of paper. Tell students you are going to say a number of words for them to write. Say the word dog. Then segment the word, raising one finger for each sound: /d/ (raise thumb).../o/ (raise pointer finger).../g/ (raise middle finger). Ask students how many sounds are in the word dog. Model reading the word letter by letter as a strategy for double-checking its spelling. Remind students to refer to the Sound Posters as they write the spellings.”

Materials provide targeted instruction and activities to accelerate learning for students who have achieved grade level mastery of foundational phonics skills.

• The materials include guidance for teachers on including “Challenge” support for students who have mastered grade-level foundational phonics skills. For example, in Skills Unit 3, Lesson 13 suggests Challenge support for “students who seem to be able to easily blend two or three sounds to form a word.” The teacher is to “challenge them by giving them a word with four sounds to blend.” Materials include words in a chart, such as dime, day, dish, and does. However, the materials do not provide the teacher with words with four sounds as part of the Challenge extension. The teacher would not be able to accelerate learning without such guidance.
• For students performing above grade level, in Unit 5, Lesson 13, the Challenge activity in the margin states, “Challenge students to think of words beginning with these sounds.” The suggestion does not include targeted instruction, such as a chart/table displaying words for the teacher to use. These upward scaffolds are suggestions and are not specific targeted learning activities.
• In Unit 8, Lesson 4, a Challenge activity states, “If students are ready for an extra challenge, ask them to also provide a word starting with the sound represented by the spelling.” The suggestion does not include targeted instruction or activities and is general.
• The “User Guide” includes guidance on supports for “Gifted/Talented” students. Materials state: “Amplify Texas Elementary Literacy Program provides opportunities for students to explore areas of interest within Knowledge domains through guided and independent research. Additionally, the learning experiences encourage advanced-level products and/or performance tasks, such as those in the Texas Performance Standards Project (TPSP), whenever applicable. Challenge tasks for all learners are included in each lesson segment.” A guide for “Best Practices and Strategies for Supporting All Learners” includes criteria demonstrating how the materials incorporate support. For example, in “Best Practices Embedded Within the Lessons of Core Curriculum,” the criteria lists the use of:
  • Challenge sidebars that provide extension activities in order to engage and stretch student thinking.
  • Employing a variety of writing tasks that allow for multiple extension trajectories.
  • Use of open-ended discussion questions to advance oral language skills and vocabulary development.
  • Use of Culminating Activities and Pausing Points within units to provide extension opportunities and encourage student choice.
• While materials include supports for Gifted/Talented students, these supports do not provide clear guidance to the teacher to support students who are achieving grade-level mastery of foundational phonics skills.

Materials provide enrichment activities for all levels of learners.

• Each unit includes an opportunity for teachers to pause and spend additional time reviewing the material taught in the Skills Unit in the Pausing Point section. For example, the Skills Unit 2 Pausing Point includes activities for additional help with blending syllables, such as the game “Have You Ever?” For this activity, the teacher teaches students the following verse to the tune of “Have You Ever Seen a Lassie?” “Have you ever seen a /k/…/a/.../t/, /k/.../a/.../t/, /k/.../a/.../t/? Have you ever seen a /k/.../a/.../t/? What did you see?” The class answers the last line with the blended word (cat). The teacher repeats using three-sound words (e.g., dog, fish, moth, rose). A variation is to sing the following verses to the tune of “The Wheels on the Bus” “The sounds in the word go /d/.../o/.../g/, /d/.../o/.../g/, /d/.../o/.../g/. The sounds in the word go /d/.../o/.../g/. Can you guess that word?”
• The Skills Unit 5 Pausing Point has an activity called “Tongue Twisters” to recognize and isolate sounds. Students interact with /b/ and /l/ in this activity: “/b/: The big boy brought the black boot back. /l/: Lilly likes licking lemon lollipops.”
• Materials provide enrichment activities for all levels of learners in the Pausing Point section at the end of each unit. An example of a Pausing Point activity in Unit 8 is “Sound Sprints.” The directions for this activity state: “Make two sets of cards with previously-taught spellings. Place the two sets of spelling cards at the far end of the classroom, the gym, or the playground. Select two students to race. Call out a sound. Have students race to grab a corresponding spelling card and bring it back. The first student to return with the correct spelling is the winner. Repeat with additional sounds and spellings.”

Evaluation for 5.2
Materials include a variety of instructional methods that appeal to a variety of learning interests and needs.

The materials meet the criteria for this indicator. Materials include a variety of instructional methods that appeal to a variety of learning interests and needs.

Materials include a variety of developmentally appropriate instructional approaches to engage students in mastery of the content. Materials support a variety of instructional settings (e.g., whole group, small group, one-on-one).

Evidence includes but is not limited to:

Materials include a variety of developmentally appropriate instructional approaches to engage students in mastery of the content.

• During Skills Unit 2, Lesson 2, the materials provide a kinesthetic activity, “Blend Syllables and Sounds Note.” This exercise helps students make the important transition from blending syllables to blending sounds. The gestures and the number of items are held constant, but the components that are blended shift from syllables to sounds. Materials instruct: “Hold your fists in front of you, palms facing down. Remember to stand with your back facing students when modeling the blending procedure. Say the word ant as you flip over your left fist and open it. Say the word hill as you flip over your right fist and open it. Say the word anthill as you clap your hands. Practice this with students.”
• The materials engage students through a variety of instructional approaches. For example, in Skills Unit 4, Lesson 3 includes opportunities for the students to use pocket charts to blend and spell new words. Teacher instructions read: “Move the s, a, and d cards to the center of your pocket chart to spell sad. Ask a student to read the word. Replace the d card with the g card and say, ‘If that is sad, what is this?’ Ask a student to read the word. (sag)”
• Materials include a variety of developmentally appropriate instructional approaches to engage students in mastery of the content. Throughout the lessons, there are kinesthetic, teacher-led, and independent practice activities. An example of a strategy is found in Skills Unit 5, Lesson 1. The students play the game “Give Me a Word,” for which the instructions read: “Gather a collection of any variety of blocks, tell the students you will provide a sound and you want them to say a word containing the sound. For example, ‘Give me a word starting with /b/.’ (If students struggle to think of a word, prompt them to look around the room for objects starting with the target sound.) As students provide words containing the targeted phoneme, give them a block. With each block, students get a turn to place it, building a collective structure as the game continues.”
• Skills Unit 9, Lesson 1, includes a lesson on oral blending using your fingers. For this activity, the teacher is guided: “Tell students you will say sounds for them to blend into words. Say the first word in a segmented fashion, marking each sound with a finger tap. Start with a thumb-forefinger tap. Say the blended word and form a fist. Repeat and have students tap and blend the sounds in the word.”

Materials support a variety of instructional settings (e.g., whole group, small group, one on one).

• The materials include suggestions for the whole group setting. For example, in Skills Unit 2, Lesson 1, the teacher introduces syllable blending in a whole group setting. The materials instruct the teacher: “Use your right hand first, then your left, so from students’ point of view the motions will occur from left to right. Encourage students to mirror your actions, using their left hand first, then their right. Say the word one as you flip over your right fist and open it. Say the word two as you flip over your left fist and open it. Say the word blend as you clap your hands. Practice this with the class using the word cupcake.”
• In Skills Unit 5, Lesson 5, there is an opportunity for students to work independently while others are working with the teacher. The lesson states: “Distribute Activity Pages 5.2 and 5.3. Explain the directions to students in Group 2 so they can complete them independently while you work with students in Group 1.”
• The materials include suggestions for center activities. For example, Skills Unit 8, Lesson 8 informs the teacher that the “Match Maker” game is best played in small groups or centers. To play this game, the materials instruct teachers: “Make two copies of Activity Page TR 5.1 (Tricky Word Cards) for each student. Cut the word cards apart. Shuffle the cards and lay them face down on the table. Have students turn over two cards at a time, attempting to find matching cards.”

Evaluation for 5.3
Materials include supports for Emergent Bilinguals to meet grade-level learning expectations.

The materials meet the criteria for this indicator. Materials include supports for Emergent Bilinguals to meet grade-level learning expectations.

Materials include linguistic accommodations (communicated, sequenced, and scaffolded) commensurate with various levels of English language proficiency as defined by the English Language Proficiency Standards (ELPS). Materials demonstrate strategic use of students’ first language as a means to linguistic, affective, cognitive, and academic development in English.

Evidence includes but is not limited to:

Materials include linguistic accommodations (communicated, sequenced, and scaffolded) commensurate with various levels of English language proficiency as defined by the English Language Proficiency Standards (ELPS).

• Skills Unit 5, Lesson 9, provides visuals and manipulatives for Emergent Bilinguals: “Foundational Literacy Skills: Model for students how to segment sounds for the word box using the oral segmenting routine. For additional support and to help individual students with letter-sound correspondences, you may wish to review each letter sound using the Sound Posters and Cards.”
• The teacher manual has suggestions for ways that the teacher can support Emergent Bilinguals. For example, Skills Unit 6, Lesson 1, includes an “English Language Learning—Foundational Skills” suggestion in the margin. Students can practice segmenting phonemes by breaking apart the phonemes in the names of the objects on Activity Page TR 1.1.
• Skills Unit 8, Lesson 6, provides visuals and manipulatives for Emergent Bilinguals: “Foundational Literacy Skills: Model for students on how to segment sounds for the word hot using the oral segmenting routine. For additional support and to help individual students with letter-sound correspondences, you may wish to review each letter sound using the Sound Posters and Cards.”
• In Skills Unit 9, Lesson 5 includes an English Language Learning—Foundational Skills suggestion in the margin, which instructs teachers: “Prior to blending the last five words, tell students that all of the words they will blend are names of months. Hold up the calendar, flip from January to March, point to the March page, and say March. Repeat the process with all of the months, directing students to repeat the names after you’ve said them. Proceed with the blending of the last five words.” The materials cite the ELPS.

Materials encourage strategic use of students’ first language as a means to linguistic, affective, cognitive, and academic development in English.

• The materials encourage strategic use of students’ first language. The materials include family letters explaining the instructional objectives and/or homework in languages other than English. The “Kindergarten Planning Documents Family Letter Español” states: “El aprendizaje de la lectura con Amplify Texas es explícito, ya que enseña y ayuda con la práctica y el dominio de los 44 sonidos del idioma inglés y sus 150 formas de escritura; es secuencial, ya que permite que la fonética y las destrezas fundamentales de lectura se desarrollen en una secuencia de más fácil a más complejo, de manera que los estudiantes puedan dominar los conceptos antes de seguir adelante y de esta forma se tornen más independientes; y es divertido, ya que se practica con libros descifrables que contienen argumentos y personajes dinámicos, lo cual hace que los alumnos quieran aprender más.”
• The materials include cognates and vocabulary. Before listening to a “Read-Aloud,” the teacher previews key vocabulary, Spanish cognates, and Spanish translations. In Unit 7, the English word is cans. The “False Spanish Cognate” is cansar. The “English Translation of False Cognate” is to tire; exhaust.
• The materials encourage strategic use of students’ first language as a means to linguistic, affective, cognitive, and academic development in English. The “Program Overview” mentions, “Materials can support any ESL, Bilingual, or Dual Language Immersion program and Spanish materials based on a combination of authentic and carefully transadapted texts.” In the “Teacher Guide” and additional program materials, there are embedded supports for drawing connections between Spanish and English letter sounds. In Unit 4, the materials provide the following information: “In Spanish, the letter h is silent and the /h/ sound is made (in a slightly raspier way) by the letter j. Emphasize that in English this picture (h) makes this sound (/h/).”