¡Arriba la lectura! - Grade 4

Evaluation for 2.1
Materials include high-quality texts for SLAR instruction and cover a range of student interests.

The materials include high-quality texts for SLAR instruction and cover a range of student interests. The texts are well-crafted, representing the quality of content, language, and writing that is produced by experts in various disciplines. Additionally, the materials include increasingly complex traditional, contemporary, classical, and multicultural diverse texts. 

Evidence includes but is not limited to:

Texts found in the instructional materials expose students to other cultures, beliefs, and customs. The materials are relevant and relatable to the students’ historical backgrounds. In Module 1, Lesson 6, a narrative poem “¡Si! Somos latinos” by Alma Flor Ada and F. Isabel Campoy narrates the different cultures and customs of each character. Foreign language is used to emphasize their differences and the similarities they all share. Also, in Module 1, teachers introduce the fantasy genre by exploring Flora & Ulysses by renowned author Kate DiCamillo, a text rich in dialogue and highly interesting to this age group.

The materials include a list of texts teachers assign to students for close readings. The list provides genre, levels, and skills to apply for close reading text. ¿Que sol? by Judy Kentor Schmauss provides a variety of literary texts to strengthen students’ learnings. It also includes appropriate language and illustrations to inform children about the sun. The text makes it relevant to the children by having subtitles, such as “¿Cómo afecta el Sol a nuestras vidas?” and “¿Cómo afecta el Sol a la temperatura del lugar donde vivo?” 

In the section titled “Revista Aventureras,” short texts are available for students to grow their learning in a variety of subjects.

In Module 2, a short story “Dos Fridas” by F. Isabel Campoy and a poem “Miro tu cara, Frida” by F. Isabel Campoy and Alma Flor Ada share their views of Frida Kahlo. The short story exposes students to foreign artists and the influence they had in their country. The poem describes the foreign artist Frida Kahlo. 

Module 3 explores Historical Fiction with “Jazz para la fiesta de alquiler,” a culturally responsive complex traditional text, and a Historical Non-Fiction piece “El huracán de Galveston de 1900.” Students use textual evidence in their dialogue when responding to comprehension questions with a partner. 

The story El pájaro dorado by Jim Howes is a fairy tale appropriate for students in fourth grade. 

The story El extraterrestre fugitivo by Michael Pryor is Science Fiction. The story provides adequate context for close reading.

A series of fables are found in the book Historias fragmentadas by Roger Lore.

A biography, Las semillas del cambio by Jen Cullerton Johnson, provides content to further the student's understanding of a particular topic. The text exposes students to other cultures and customs. 

The materials include expository texts on various topics. For example, Module 9 “Patrullaje de tortugas marinas.” 

The materials offer a wide variety of different passages where students can relate to the content. In Module 10, students view a vivid timeline in a short passage about how technology has evolved and write responses to comprehension questions. Texts explored through the modules are increasingly complex in length and analysis. In “Biblioteca al Alcance de los niños” (an external reference icon within the textbook), students have a wide variety of texts to choose from (interests, genre, etc.). 

Evaluation for 2.2
Materials include a variety of text types and genres across content that meet the requirements of the TEKS for each grade level.

The materials include the appropriate quantitative levels and qualitative features for the grade level. In addition, the texts are accompanied by a text complexity analysis provided by the publisher. 

Evidence includes but is not limited to:

Instructional materials include quantitative features and qualitative levels for the grade level. A list of texts is included with Lexile levels for kindergarten through sixth grade. The section titled “Biblioteca al alcance del estudiante” provides texts with a rationale explaining the educational purpose and grade-level placement of the texts. 

The book titled Superpredadores by Steve Jenkins is Lexile level 950L and considered slightly complex. A brief reasoning of the text is available before reading. It also includes suggestions for group projects.

The story titled El caso de las abejas desaparecidas by Sandra Markle is considered a 910L Lexile level and complex text. The materials provide guidance on how the teacher can address the small reading groups. 

The instructional materials provide a resource titled “Guía del maestro.” The materials provide a table of contents with different categories to locate information about various components of the program titled “¡Arriba la Lectura!” It provides a preview of what is included for teachers and students. Examples of each component are illustrated for teachers’ guidance on what topics to cover. 

The Rigby Readers “Lecturas por niveles” provides a complexity analysis of included text titles, fiction/non-fiction check, genre, level, and Lexile with 1-3 content concepts. Levels in this grade range from 430 Lexile to 990, making it adaptable to below and above grade level. Lexile levels for fourth grade range from 740-940 Lexile. For example, La misteriosa capsula del tiempo is categorized as a fictional mystery piece at level O, with a Lexile level of 690L with 24 pages. This text includes lessons on main idea, point of view, text characteristics, and graphic elements. 

In “Vistasos a los Textos de la Leccion,” the teacher’s guide describes the texts covered with “moderate complexity.” This focuses on the main text in the lesson and does analyze it in detail. 

In Module 7, “Vistaso rapido” explores Cuatro joyas by Fernando Alonzo. This guide explains why this particular text was chosen, provides suggested cultural notes and even a comparison text. However, there is no description of the complexity of the texts within the modules. 

The Reading Workshop embedded within all modules provides a detailed guide on activities and strategies to teach texts. The rich-print teacher visual focuses on collaborative grouping, independent practice, and teacher mini-lessons with a suggested time frame for each section. The guide is specific enough to show teachers how to create groups, one on guided reading and one on support groups, based on certain student information. 

Evaluation for 2.3
Texts are appropriately challenging and are at an appropriate level of complexity to support students at their grade level.

Materials include text types outlined for specific grades by the TEKS that include literary and informational texts, such as texts of information, exposition, argument, procedures, and documents. Materials also include print and graphic features of a variety of texts, informational and argumentative texts that are connected to science and social studies topics, and opportunities for students to recognize and analyze characteristics of multimodal and digital texts.

Evidence includes but is not limited to:

The instructional materials include a variety of genres. In Module 4, La Batalla de El Alamo by Amie Jane Leavitt makes social studies connections by narrating an American history event. 

Module 7 explores realistic fiction, poetry, and traditional tales. 

In Module 8, students explore a realistic fiction text with La sarten por el mango. Also in Module 8, Comida Ecológica by Cath Senker makes connections with Social Studies, explaining the benefits of eating eco-friendly food to the body and society. Additionally, “Bocaditos de insectos” makes a science connection by giving informational facts about including insects in a person’s diet.

In Module 9, the story titled 12 Árboles Amigos by María Benedetti and Jacqueline Negrón Flores is an informational text that exposes students to the importance of trees in Earth and cultures. Also in Module 9, the story Luz se ilumina by Claudia Dávila is a graphic novel with speech balloons, onomatopoeia, bold words, illustrations, and definitions included at the bottom of the page. 

Module 9 also explores informational text with a cross-curricular alignment to science and social studies. There is a multimedia video that explains how corn is turned into popcorn titled “Video de Mentes curiosas: Del maíz a las palomitas.” 

The materials address comprehension and responding to text during shared reading and independent reading. In Module 10, the story La lección de Cooper by Sun Yung Shin is a text that includes problem and solution. 

Module 12 focuses on realistic fiction, traditional tales, and historical fiction. It includes a cross-curricular alignment with science and social studies that is presented throughout all modules.

Evaluation for 3.A.1
Materials contain questions and tasks that support students in analyzing and integrating knowledge, ideas, topics, themes, and connections within and across texts.

Instructional materials contain questions and tasks that build conceptual knowledge, are text-specific/dependent, target complex elements of the texts, and integrate multiple TEKS. The questions and tasks require students to make connections to personal experiences, other texts, and the world around them and identify and discuss important big ideas, themes, and details.

Evidence includes but is not limited to:

Instructional materials provide a variety of formats to target complex elements of texts. In Module 2, a video “La asociación entre el pez payaso y la anémona del mar” includes a section for students to write what they think the vocabulary associated with the video means. The questions prompt students to use context clues to define four vocabulary words. Instructional materials provide a variety of formats to target complex elements of texts. Examples of questions include “Presta atención a las palabras del vocabulario crítico adhieren, punzantes, impunidad y liberan. Busca pistas para descubrir el significado de cada palabra. Toma notas en el espacio de abajo sobre cómo se usaron.” “Mientras miras la asociación entre el pez payaso y la anémona de mar, piensa en el propósito principal del narrador. ¿Cómo presenta el narrador la información nueva? ¿De qué manera los elementos visuales apoyan esa información? ¿Ayuda el narrador a que el tema sea más interesante? ¿Cómo? Toma notas en el espacio de abajo.”

In Module 6, the story titled “La fosa de las Marianas” by Michael Woods includes a section titled “Escribir un relato personal,” where students are prompted to write a personal narrative. Students are integrating their understanding of the story by writing about the experiences of the main character. 

Questions and assignments in the textbook support students in analyzing and integrating knowledge, ideas, topics, themes, and connections across texts. Throughout the modules, we see the complexity of questions increasing, eventually leading to synthesizing and inferring information. All texts are introduced appropriately, and students have ample opportunities to explore the text. The text is read in various formats (online digital, oral choral, independently) and explored in differentiated instruction practices. All texts begin with an introductory video to build background and an Essential Question to connect students’ knowledge to real-world scenarios. For example, in Module 7, the introduction begins with an Essential Question “¿Qué lecciones puedes aprender de los personajes de cuentos tradicionales?” 

In this same module, the students use a graphic organizer to generate their ideas, answering the Essential Question provided. While they read texts, students are able to annotate the connection in their graphic organizer. At the end of the module, students synthesize what they have learned about and make connections with their personal life, society, and across texts. Students make inferences, visualize, retell, respond to text in a variety of ways, write their own story, and communicate effectively.

Questions and assignments in the textbook require textual evidence to write responses to critical thinking questions. These questions and tasks support their learning of explicit facts and inferences in a text. Students build background for a unit by always answering an Essential Question that connects the theme to themselves, society, and other texts. For example, in Module 8, students graph their understanding of healthy foods by classifying ideas. As students read the text, they provide textual evidence to complete the graphic organizer and synthesize their ideas. 

Students use the collaborative conversation after interacting with a text in cooperative groups to listen, write, speak, and think after they have read. Students use the reading graphic organizer to write responses to text. In the graphic organizers, students write their questions before, during, and after reading the text. One of the organizers is about verifying and clarifying any doubts they may have using strategies such as rereading, using previous knowledge, observing visual elements, making questions, retelling beginning, middle, and end of story, creating summaries, making and validating predictions, visualizing, making inferences (with text evidence), synthesizing information from reading, creating theme graphs, characterization, etc. The graphic organizers provide a way to structure thinking for critical questions at the higher level of DOA or Bloom’s taxonomy “synthesize.”

Also in Module 8, the story titled “Comida ecologica” by Cath Senker includes three questions and suggestions for listening and speaking. The materials suggest an activity to create instructions on how to cultivate foods. Examples of questions include “¿Cuáles de las ideas que menciona la autora son derrochadoras? ¿Cuáles son responsables?” “¿Por qué puede ser útil cultivar alimentos en un huerto en la escuela?” Activities in each module encourage students to answer or create products using different formats. 

Evaluation for 3.A.2
Materials contain questions and tasks that require students to analyze the language, key ideas, details, craft, and structure of individual texts.

Questions and tasks support students’ analysis of the literary/textual elements of texts by asking students to analyze, make inferences, and draw conclusions about the author’s purpose in cultural, historical, and contemporary contexts and provide evidence for the text to support their understanding. They require students to compare the stated or implied purposes of different authors’ writing on the same topic; analyze the author’s choice and how they influence and communicate meaning (in single and across a variety of texts); make and correct or confirm predictions using text features, characteristics of genre, and structures with and without adult assistance; and study the language within texts to support their understanding.

Evidence includes but is not limited to:

Questions and tasks require readers to identify and support the author's purpose of both general topics and specific author’s literary choice. Students analyze texts, asking questions using the anchor chart “Hacer y contestar preguntas”; one of the questions they ask is “¿Por qué el autor escribió esto?” The anchor chart is found in all modules. 

Instructional materials include questions and activities that foster textual analysis. In Module 1, the story titled Flora y Ulises: Las aventuras iluminadas by Kate DiCamillo, students use text evidence to understand character traits, character point of view, and how the squirrel changes from the beginning of the story to the end. The teacher explains texts use illustrations that also help describe characters, “el texto y las ilustraciones describen a los personajes y el ambiente. Las ilustraciones también pueden dar pistas acerca de la trama.” Students answer the questions “¿Qué palabras y acciones del texto indican cómo es Flora? ¿En qué se diferencian las reacciones de Flora y la señora Tickham a lo que le ha ocurrido a la ardilla?” and “¿Qué palabras y frases indican cómo cambia la ardilla después de lo que le ocurre con la aspiradora?”

Instructional materials offer opportunities for students to compare and contrast the author’s purposes of different writing about the same topic. In Module 2, the materials provide an informational text, iGracias, queridos animales! by Aurora Arce, and the realistic fiction, Mucho más que un amigo by Ana Di Mare. In “Comparar Textos,” teachers ask students “que trabajen en parejas para escribir en qué se parece lo que piensan la autora de y el rescatista de Mucho más que un amigo respecto del papel de los animales en la vida de las personas.” Students are prompted to incorporate “descripciones y detalles sobre los animales en ambos textos” the author includes in each piece.

Questions support building students’ analysis of the literary/textual elements studied in the grade level. Questions foster textual analysis through meaningful classroom discussions. For example, in Module 4, before reading La Batalla del Álamo, students use the “Cartel didáctico 20, Características del texto y elementos gráficos” and study the author’s use of “elementos gráficos como mapas o diagramas.” Teachers group students to discuss: “Diga a los estudiantes que practicarán el uso de características del texto y elementos gráficos para obtener una comprensión más profunda del tema en ¿Quién es un héroe?” Students discuss the Essential Question, “Recuerde a los estudiantes la Pregunta esencial, ¿Qué hace que alguien sea un héroe?” Teacher reminds students, “Aliente a los estudiantes a usar características del texto y elementos gráficos para ayudarse a encontrar información adecuada para responder la pregunta.”

The materials contain text-specific/dependent tasks that support students as they analyze grade-appropriate detail, craft, and structure. In Module 4, after reading Bomberos Paracaidistas al Rescate, students write an employment ad using what they learned from the text. The teacher has students take “notas sobre los problemas que debe resolver un bombero paracaidista. Menciona las características y destrezas que necesitaría un bombero paracaidista para hacer esas tareas. Ahora escribe tu anuncio de empleo.” Students begin with a thematic sentence, include details and facts about the job skills and requirements, and end up with a closing statement. 

Students use the reading graphic organizer to write responses to text. Students write their questions before, during, and after reading the text. In the graphic organizer, “Sintetizar,” students respond in three columns, “Lo que sé, Lo que he aprendido y Conocimientos adquiridos.” Students verify and clarify doubts about strategies such as rereading, previous knowledge, visual elements, asking questions, retelling beginning, middle, and end of story, creating summaries, making and validating predictions, visualizing, making inferences (with text evidence), synthesizing theme graphs, and characterization. The graphic organizers provide a way to structure thinking for critical questions at the higher level of Depth of Knowledge (DOK) or Bloom’s taxonomy “synthesize.”

The materials provide questions and tasks that foster textual analysis through meaningful classroom discussions. In Module 4, the story La batalla de El Alamo by Amie Jane Leavitt includes three questions for collaborative discussions. Example of the questions: “¿Por qué los texanos luchan contra México? ¿Quiénes corren hacia El Álamo? ¿Por qué?” “¿Cuáles son algunas de las decisiones más difíciles que deben tomar las personas dentro de El Álamo?” The teacher reminds students, “Habla usando un volumen y un ritmo adecuados para expresar tus ideas y opiniones fundamentadas.” Students write a summary of the events they read: “Resume la idea principal y los detalles importantes sobre los acontecimientos que tuvieron lugar en El Álamo.”

The materials offer opportunities for students to make and correct or confirm predictions using text features. In Module 7, the Teacher’s Guide includes suggestions for teachers to model how to correct or confirm predictions. The teacher states, “Los buenos lectores hacen y confirman predicciones a lo largo de la lectura para poder comprender mejor lo que está sucediendo en el cuento.” The teacher displays “Cartel didáctico 5: Hacer y confirmar predicciones” and states, “lectores necesitan pensar en el tipo de texto que están leyendo para que puedan usar lo que saben acerca del género, la estructura y las características del texto para hacer, corregir y confirmar predicciones.” Students read “En los días del rey Adobe” and annotate predictions, “mientras los estudiantes siguen la lectura y hacen anotaciones en miLibro.”

Questions and tasks require textual evidence to write responses to critical thinking questions. These questions and tasks support learning explicit facts and inferences in a text. Students build background before a unit by creating a “Mapa de conocimientos” about the essential theme in the module, “Alimentos saludables,” by making connections between themselves, society, and other texts. In Module 8, students read “Comida ecologica” and “Mientras lee las seleccione del módulo, añade información.” The teacher provides questions for students to discuss: “¿Cuáles de las ideas que menciona la autora son derrochadoras? ¿Cuáles son responsables? ¿Qué motivos da la autora para hacer un huerto de barriles?” As students discuss the questions, they provide textual evidence from the “Mapa de conocimeientos” and synthesize their ideas. 

Evaluation for 3.A.3
Materials include a cohesive, year-long plan for students to interact with and build key academic vocabulary in and across texts.

Materials include a cohesive, year-long plan for students to interact with and build key academic vocabulary in and across texts, including ways to apply words in appropriate contexts. Materials also include scaffolds and supports for teachers to differentiate vocabulary development for all learners.

Evidence includes but is not limited to:

Instructional materials include ways to build academic vocabulary in a year-long plan. For example, in Module 1, materials provide guidance on time to spend working on vocabulary: “Tiempos diarios sugeridos” suggests 10–15 minutes. The teacher introduces the vocabulary using vocabulary routine: “Lea cada palabra en voz alta y pida a los estudiantes que la repitan. Lea en voz alta y comente la explicación adaptada a los estudiantes de cada palabra. Señale la oración de ejemplo de la palabra. Pida a los estudiantes que den otros ejemplos.” Each module includes the same routine to introduce the words for the daily lesson. Students engage in a variety of activities each day with the words. For example, in Module 1, students create their own sentences. In Module 6, they physically demonstrate words like “orificios” with movement such as “cierra la boca y respira únicamente por tus orificios nasales.” In Module 7, students internalize the words by writing, “Haz una lluvia de ideas sobre otras palabras que se te ocurren cuando oyes la palabra sifón.“

The materials provide support and scaffolds for students and teacher support to differentiate vocabulary development. All vocabulary is introduced using vocabulary cards. Cards include the word, an illustration, the word divided in syllables, a sentence. The materials provide teacher guidance on the routines to scaffold the learning. For the word identidad, teachers state “Lee la palabra de arriba y su significado. Lee esta oración: El amor por los deportes forma parte de mi identidad. Escribe una oración que contenga la palabra identidad. Haz una lluvia de ideas sobre otras palabras que se te ocurren cuando oyes la palabra identidad.” Students interact with the vocabulary by engaging in “Conversación Colaborativa,” which makes them clarify the meaning. Students use the vocabulary cards in pairs: “Elige un compañero y túrnense para describir sus identidades. ¿Cómo te describirías a ti mismo? ¿Qué es importante para ti? ¿Cómo explican estas respuestas tu identidad?” 

Every module teaches three types of vocabulary words: “Palabras de la Idea esencial, Vocabulario academinco y Vocabulario generativo.” The first set begins with critical words throughout the lessons. For example, Module 1, includes identidad, experiencia, meta, sabiduría. The “Vocabulario crítico” refers to vocabulary needed to understand concepts in the lesson. “Vocabulario de enseñanza” refers to content-specific terms learned throughout the module. The “Vocabulario generativo” includes, “Prefijos des-, in-, im-, re- and Sufijos -oso, -osa, -mente.”

The materials include a curriculum plan to develop academic vocabulary throughout the modules. Texts have an embedded glossary for difficult words. For example, in Module 6, text “Las siete maravillas naturales” the word is “pintoresco.” Students click on the word, and a glossary appears that lists the word, part of speech, the definition, and how it is used in a sentence: “El arrecife pintoresco se destaca sobre la larga costa.” Students can also click on the icon to listen to an oral reading of the glossary information. These keywords not only have an embedded electronic glossary, but they're in the footnotes of every text. Students use a vocabulary web where they write these keywords and find synonyms, antonyms, and keywords. 

Instructional materials incorporate strategies to build academic vocabulary with students. The section titled “Presentar el Vocabulario crítico” prompts the teacher to present new vocabulary words. Instructional materials also provide suggestions to engage students in building academic vocabulary: “Guíe a los estudiantes para interactuar con las palabras contestando preguntas.” Students are provided questions to discuss vocabulary: “Nombra algo que haya cambiado considerablemente tu vida desde tercer grado. Explica tu respuesta. ¿Cómo buscas información cuando no puedes acceder a Internet? Explica tu respuesta. Piensa en un invento ridículo que debería tener una patente. Explica por qué.”

As guided practice, the teacher displays the vocabulary words, and student groups take turns giving clues and guessing the word. Students write clues about the word in various forms: antonyms, synonyms, examples, illustrations, etc., to internalize the vocabulary. Students use evidence from their comprehension of critical vocabulary words to answer the following questions in groups in Module 10: “¿Qué solo artículo mejoraría considerablemente tu vida? ¿Qué persona te ayudó a acceder a una oportunidad que no habías tenido antes?” Cooperative grouping is also a scaffolding approach for various types of learners.

Instructional materials offer guidance on establishing rich routines for introducing target words. In Module 10, the section “Palabras de esta semana” provides a list of vocabulary words. The Teacher Guide includes routines that explicitly teach the meaning of each word: “Use la rutina de Vocabulario para presentar el Vocabulario crítico de La historia de las comunicaciones.” The materials guide teachers to have students use the sentence provided through the routine and create their own: “Señale la oración de ejemplo de la palabra. Pida a los estudiantes que sugieran otros ejemplos.”

Evaluation for 3.A.4
Materials include a clearly defined plan to support and hold students accountable as they engage in independent reading.

Materials include a clearly defined plan to support and hold students accountable as they engage in independent reading by establishing procedures and/or protocols, along with adequate support for teachers, to foster independent reading. In addition, materials provide a plan for students to self-select texts and read independently for a sustained period of time, including planning and accountability for achieving independent reading goals.

Evidence includes but is not limited to:

The materials provide procedures and protocols for tracking independent reading. At the end of every lesson, in the section “Aplicación independiente,” students reflect on learning and share reflections. For example, at the end of Module 1, the focus is “Lenguaje figurado.” Teachers ask students to identify “un lenguaje que los ayude a visualizar lo que está sucediendo.” Teachers have students engage in a game, “Teléfono hiperbólico.” The teacher provides the game procedures: “Un estudiante le susurra su hipérbole a otro estudiante y luego se lo susurra a otro hasta que la hipérbole ha sido susurrada a todos en el grupo. Haga que el último estudiante diga la hipérbole en voz alta al grupo.”

The materials provide opportunities for students to interact with texts and/or read independently. In every text, the materials include a section “Prepárate para leer” with questions for students to respond to before reading. After reading the texts, students engage in “Conversación colaborativa,” with questions for students to respond to with peers. Although no questions are inserted between paragraphs for students to reflect as they read, some of the after-reading questions require students to go back to the text and reread to be able to respond. For example, in Module 1, in the text Flora y Ulises, one of the questions for after reading says “¿Qué palabras y acciones del texto indican cómo es Flora?”

Students use a variety of activities and anchor charts to frame their thinking while they read their own selected text. For example, in Module “Reading Workshops,” students read independently while they complete a reading log. In the reading log, students engage in a variety of writing tasks, such as writing a summary, annotating questions or favorite parts, what they enjoyed the most, what they didn’t understand, and if they would recommend this book. During each independent reading session, students record the date and pages read. The teacher provides “Página imprimible Mi caja de herramientas” for students to “apliquen lo que han comprendido de la destreza a un libro de lectura independiente” and reflect on their learning. Teachers also provide students with a printable exit ticket that evaluates their work. This printable exit ticket elicits responses such as ”¿En qué trabajé hoy (centro de redacción, centro de voc, centro de proyectos y estación digital?” 

Across modules, the materials provide teachers with an array of graphic organizers for students to monitor their understanding of a variety of text, titled “Organizadores Graficos de Lectura.” Graphic organizers included as support for all modules are used during the established reading material and also during independent reading. Examples of the graphic organizers include “Punto de vista,” “Elementos literarios,” and “Lenguaje figurado.” 

The Reading Workshops provided across the modules include opportunities for students to practice guided, independent, and collaborative reading. For example, in Module 8, Reading Workshop, teachers select books students can read independently. The materials state: “Elija libros de la Lectura por niveles de Rigby según el nivel de lectura, o elija las estrategias que desee enseñar o practicar con cada grupo.” Students engage in activities to independently apply skills in reading and writing, “para guiar la enseñanza de lectura, verificar la comprensión y ampliar el aprendizaje.”

Instructional materials provide opportunities for students to participate in independent reading. In Module 10, a section titled “Centro de lectura” allows students to track their independent reading time. Students complete “Página imprimible: Organizador gráfico de lectura 17” for the texts read independently. The materials provide teacher guidance on independent reading, such as “Pida a los estudiantes que elijan o sigan leyendo un libro de lectura independiente. Recuerde a los estudiantes que establezcan un propósito para la lectura.” Teachers hold students accountable during independent reading through “Página imprimible: Registro de lectura.” Teachers ask students to use this document to annotate ideas that surge throughout the reading of the text. 

In Module 11, the section “Clubes de lectura para el estudio del género” guides teachers to facilitate book clubs. The Teacher Guide offers suggestions for teachers to initiate the reading club by asking students to choose a book. “Pida a los estudiantes que escojan libros de no ficción de la Biblioteca al alcance del estudiante o de la biblioteca del salón de clases.” Students share why they chose their book and what they hope to learn from it, answering questions such as “¿Cuál es el tema del libro que leíste? ¿Cómo logra el autor mantenerte interesado en el tema?”

The materials encourage Independent reading at home. Families receive a letter regarding what their child will be learning throughout the module. The letter encourages parents to have students read every day and even reserve some time to read together. The letter explains to parents what genre and concepts students will study so that they can ask related questions to their students. For example, “Hable sobre las ideas que su hijo ha añadido al Mapa de conocimientos cada semana. Pregúntele sobre los textos que está leyendo y lo que ha aprendido de ellos.”

Evaluation for 3.B.1
Materials provide support for students to develop composition skills across multiple text types for a variety of purposes and audiences.

Materials provide support for students to develop composition skills across multiple text types for a variety of purposes and audiences. Materials provide students opportunities to write literary texts to express their ideas and feelings about real or imagined people, events and ideas, informational texts, argumentative texts, and correspondence in a professional or friendly structure.

Evidence includes but is not limited to:

The materials provide opportunities for students to develop composition skills across multiple text types. The materials provide supplemental “Writer’s Workshop” lessons that are aligned to the genres of the main lessons. The materials provide a year’s worth of writing instruction by providing 15 Writer’s Workshop lessons to be completed in conjunction with every module. Throughout the different modules of Writer’s Workshop, students write personal narratives, letters, essays, stories, a biographical essay, a research report, and poetry. Writer’s workshop materials provide teachers guidance to grow their composition skills through mini-lessons. They include detailed descriptions of how to guide a lesson. Module 1, to brainstorm ideas, the teacher writes the word descubri on the board and shares the think-aloud provided: “Recuerdo el primer día frío del año pasado. Rebusqué en mi clóset para encontrar mi abrigo. Estaba en el fondo. Me lo puse al salir por la puerta. El viento estaba frío, entonces metí las manos en los bolsillos. Cuando las metí, sentí algo en el bolsillo izquierdo. Lo saqué. Era un dólar que se me había olvidado. ¡Me emocioné muchísimo!” Students contribute emotions they felt when ”¿Alguna vez han descubierto algo?” 

Students have opportunities to write informational texts for multiple purposes and audiences not only during Writer’s Workshop but also as part of the main reading lessons. In Module 2, for example, students write a TV script after reading “La razón de los sentidos,” an informational article, as a wrap-up for the module. The materials include teacher support to support students through the process of writing informational text. For example, materials provide steps for the students, “Pregunta Esencial: ¿De qué manera las personas y los animales usan los sentidos para desplazarse por el mundo?” Materials provide students guidance for the writing process, “Hacer un borrador, Revisar y Editar y Presentar,” such as “Recopila los artículos y haz con ellos un boletín informativo de ciencias.”

Instructional materials provide opportunities to write correspondence in a professional or friendly structure. In Module 3, students are asked to write a friendly letter to one of the main characters of a given text. Teacher prompts students: “Ahora escribe tu nota de agradecimiento de Sonny a Jack Sonrisas.” Student thank you letters include “comienza con un saludo, explica por qué le agradeces a Jack Sonrisas, incluye acontecimientos del texto y termina con un enunciado de cierre.”

In Module 3 Writer’s Workshop, students write a persuasive letter. Students answer the Essential Question for the writing theme: “¿Por qué es importante contar con los amigos y miembros de la familia cuando se presenta un desafío” Teachers display “Cartel didáctico E8: Elementos de un argumento.” Teachers model with think-aloud: “Explique que un ensayo de opinión es un tipo de escritura argumentativa que expresa la perspectiva personal del escritor del tema.” The anchor chart leads students through the writing process by first visualizing ideas in forming an argument. The anchor charts lead students to follow a step-by-step guide: afirmación, evidencia, afirmación contraria, refutación y conclusión. Teachers remind students that writers always improve their writing and encourage students to improve on their own: “Anime a los estudiantes a pensar sobre lo que podrían haber mejorado en su último escrito.”

The materials provide students opportunities to write literary texts to express their ideas and feelings. In Module 6, students write a first-person narrative from the point of view of the author of a text they just read. “Imagina que eres el teniente Walsh. Usa datos y detalles tomados del texto e imaginados por ti para escribir un cuento en el que describas el descenso de Walsh a bordo del Trieste al lugar más profundo del planeta.” Teachers prompt students: “Ahora escribe tu relato desde el punto de vista del teniente Walsh.” Teachers remind students to write in first person and use pronouns yo, me, mí, mi y conmigo. Students also use key vocabulary from the text. 

The materials provide students opportunities to write informational texts to communicate ideas and information. In Module 8, students respond to text and write instructions. Students read “Comida ecológica,” where they read instructions to make a garden with barrels. Teachers prompt students to “Ahora escribe tus instrucciones para explicar cómo cultivar o preparar alimentos.” Materials provide structure to begin the writing: “tema para desarrollar, planificar y escribir.” Students include “los materiales e ingredientes necesarios.”

Instructional materials provide opportunities for students to improve their writing skills. In the Module 9 section “Prepararse para el borrador,” teachers use resources such as “Cuaderno del escritor” shared with students to plan their draft. Teachers display “Cartel didáctico E7: Elementos del texto informativo.” The teacher explains the elements of informational text: “Explique que, en un informe de investigación, un escritor investiga hechos y detalles sobre un tema. Un escritor también puede usar citas directas de expertos en su informe.” Materials provide students a Cuaderno del escritor: “Pida a los estudiantes que recurran al Cuaderno del escritor página 9.5 para crear un plan de investigación.” As students engage in the writing process, materials provide suggestions for improving the writing. For example, “continuar consultando sus notas de escritura previa, diccionarios e Internet, tarjetas de notas y gráficos de investigación.”

Evaluation for 3.B.2
Most written tasks require students to use clear and concise information and well-defended text-supported claims to demonstrate the knowledge gained through analysis and synthesis of texts.

Most written tasks require students to use clear and concise information and well-defended text-supported claims to demonstrate the knowledge gained through analysis and synthesis of texts. Materials provide opportunities for students to use evidence from texts to support their opinions and claims and demonstrate in writing what they have learned through reading and listening to texts.

Evidence includes but is not limited to:

Most writing tasks require students to use details from texts to demonstrate knowledge gained. Before every text they read, students answer a question in writing about what they know. For example, in Module 2, before reading La Ciencia detrás de la Vista, students respond to the prompt “¿Qué sabes sobre el sentido de la vista? ¿Qué quieres saber? Escribe tus ideas abajo.” After reading, students respond to questions by finding evidence in the text. In addition, most writing tasks support students’ practice of analysis and synthesis in the final assignment after they finish reading a text. For instance, in Module 2, after they have responded to the evidence-based questions about La Ciencia detrás de la Vista, teachers ask students to write an entry for a Science blog with information taken from the text.

The writing tasks have students return to the texts to find information and ideas to support what they are writing. At the end of every module, materials include a performance task in which students write a text-based response on what they learned throughout the module. For example, Module 2, “La Razón de los sentidos” requires students write a blog, “Imagina que tu clase tiene un blog de ciencias donde comparten conceptos científicos nuevos sobre los que han leído.” Teachers remind students to use critical vocabulary from the text: “No olvides usar algunas de las palabras del Vocabulario crítico en el texto.” During the editing process, students evaluate their own work with a set of given questions, among which they find “¿Apoya mis ideas principales la evidencia de los textos y del video?”

The materials provide opportunities for students to use evidence from texts to support their opinions and claims. In Module 5, students use a graphic organizer “Mostrar y motivar: Mapa de conocimientos 5.1” to map out ideas gathered from the text. Teachers explain how to find and use text evidence to support claims: “Haz una búsqueda rápida en línea o en una enciclopedia para encontrar posibles fuentes que respondan a tu pregunta. 4 Encuentra fuentes más detalladas que te ayudarán a responder tu pregunta.” Students use the graphic organizer, “Orden cronologico” to organize the evidence. 

Tasks require students to use clear and concise information and well-defended text-supported claims to demonstrate the knowledge gained through analysis and synthesis of texts. In Module 7, students engage in collaborative conversations with groups to review the reading and tell a partner two things that they learned. Teachers provide questions and have students re-read the text to find specific information. Questions include: “¿Qué le dicen los esfuerzos de Auguste Piccard para explorar la estratosfera acerca de cómo era? Vuelva a leer las páginas 91-93 ¿Qué hizo inquietante el viaje de Trieste? ¿Qué tienen en común el globo de Auguste Piccard y el Trieste, cómo se diferencian?” Students use details from “Hacia lo desconocido: Arriba y abajo” to support their responses. A leader from the group leads the conversation and elicits students' responses and text evidence together. 

Instructional materials provide opportunities for students to demonstrate in writing what they have learned through reading and listening to texts. In Module 9, after reading Las semillas del cambio, teachers prompt students to write a speech about Wangari's life. Students include details from the text read as part of the speech: “Escribe un discurso para contarles sobre la vida de Wangari. Menciona algunos acontecimientos clave en el orden en que ocurren.”

Instructional materials provide opportunities for students to use evidence from the texts to demonstrate in writing what they have learned from the texts. Also in Module 9, after the students read the story 12 árboles amigos, they answer questions related to the text by using text evidence. Examples of the questions include: “¿Por qué son importantes las plantas para las personas? Según las autoras, ¿por qué es importante estudiar los árboles? ¿Qué árbol es más importante en el mundo: el cocotero, el guayabo o el higüero? ¿Por qué?” Instructional materials require students to use details from text to demonstrate knowledge gained: “Busca detalles y ejemplos en 12 árboles amigos para explicar tus respuestas.“

Evaluation for 3.B.3
Over the course of the year, composition convention skills are applied in increasingly complex contexts, with opportunities for students to publish their writing.

Over the course of the year, composition convention skills are applied in increasingly complex contexts, with opportunities for students to publish their writing. Materials facilitate students’ coherent use of the elements of the writing process and opportunities for practice and application of the conventions as well as grammar, punctuation, and usage. 

Evidence includes but is not limited to:

The materials facilitate students’ coherent use of the elements of the writing process by systematically incorporating them. Every “Writer’s Workshop” module guides students to compose texts following the same steps split into 15 lessons:  getting students ready (review previous knowledge or introduce new concepts), planning the writing, outlining the draft, finalizing the draft, revising through conferencing, editing, publishing and sharing. Outside of Writer’s Workshop, students also have opportunities at the end of every module to write in different genres incorporating the elements of the writing process. 

Instructional materials provide opportunities for practice and application of the conventions of academic language when speaking and writing. In Module 1, materials include activities for students to practice the grammatical rules in their writing. Teachers explain the “Tipos de oraciones” through the use of “Mostrar y motivar 1.8.” The teacher displays a table with four types of sentences, what the sentence does, and an example. For example, for Imperativa, what the sentence does: Da una orden (manda). An example of it: Toma tu bicicleta y vete a casa. Students practice recognizing types of sentences and generate their own. 

Additionally, in Module 4, the Teacher’s Guide includes instructions for teachers to remind students about capitalization and punctuation. The teacher displays “Cartel didáctico E13: Lista de comprobación para la edición.” The anchor chart includes a list of when to “‘Usar Mayúsculas’ such as en la primera palabra de una oración y en nombres propios.” Students edit their writing and look for punctuation, including commas, question marks, spelling, and the use of capitalization rules. “Los estudiantes editan independientemente su texto para comprobar la puntuación, incluyendo comas y signos de interrogación, ortografía, uso de mayúsculas y concordancia entre el sujeto y el verbo.” 

The materials include lessons dedicated to teaching punctuation and grammar. For example, at the end of Module 5, students write a story. Teachers prompt students to think about characteristics of stories: “Pida a los estudiantes que piensen en algunas características de los cuentos imaginativos. Pida a voluntarios que compartan sus ideas. Luego escriba sus sugerencias en el pizarrón o en una hoja de rotafolio.” Students create their own story by completing a graphic organizer where they outline the characters, the plot, and the morale of the story. Students develop the beginning, middle, and end of the story. After they finish writing, the teacher provides guidance on how to edit and revise their own writing by using a checklist provided. Students use the checklist and apply to the writing: “Cada oración tiene concordancia sujeto-verbo. Cada oración comienza con mayúscula. Cada oración termina con el signo de puntuación apropiado.”

Additionally, in Writer’s Workshop Module 5, materials provide language-based support in the “Mostrar y Motivar” posters that feature guidance on grammar rules. For example, in Module 5, students add “lenguaje descriptivo” to their writing. The teacher displays “Cartel didáctico: E14” and states, “Las palabras que un escritor elige para describir sus ambientes, personajes y acontecimientos pueden determinar que un cuento sea aburrido o emocionante para el lector. Students return to the writing to apply the skill: “Las palabras que un escritor elige para describir sus ambientes, personajes y acontecimientos pueden determinar que un cuento sea aburrido o emocionante para el lector.”

Grammar, punctuation, and usage are taught systematically both in and out of context. There are full lessons devoted to grammar, punctuation, or usage embedded in the modules so that they align with the topics or genres they are writing about. For instance, in Module 5 of Writer’s Workshop, where students write an expository essay, students learn about using conjunctions to combine sentences into compound sentences, which they will need to incorporate in their writing. Teachers encourage students to offer and accept feedback during this stage: “Recuerden que nuestro salón es un lugar seguro donde todos pertenecemos. Si se traban en la escritura, pidan ayuda.” Materials provide students posters for self-checking while editing and revising (“Lista de Comprobación para la Revisión” and “Lista de Comprobación para la Edición”) that include suggestions and examples to improve the writing. Although materials do call for editing and revising throughout the year, there is no evidence that these practices grow in sophistication as the year progresses.

The materials provide opportunities for practice and application of the conventions of academic language when speaking and writing, including punctuation and grammar. For example, in Module 10, teachers cover adjectives to reinforce student knowledge usage and application into writing. The teacher displays “Mostrar Y Motivar Gramática 4.1.1a,” where adjectives are described in detail and sentences are diagrammed to show its placement and type of adjective, such as type, how many, which. Students work independently by finding the adjective that describes the underlined subjects in sentences as well as adjectives before and after subjects, such as “Allí hay...perros...y….” (tranquilos, dos, mansos).

Evaluation for 3.B.4
Materials include practice for students to write legibly in cursive. (Grades 3-5 only)

Materials include some practice for students to write legibly in cursive and meet the requirement for the TEKS. The materials include some procedures and supports for teachers to assess students’ handwriting development.

Evidence includes but is not limited to:

Instructional materials provide opportunities for students to practice cursive handwriting. The supplemental materials “Recursos” include directions that support the teacher for teaching cursive and explaining the importance of page placement and inclining the pencil to practice cursive handwriting. An example of the instructions are as follows: “Verifique la posición de cada estudiante y ayúdalos a acomodarse si es necesario.” Teachers explain how to correctly position the hand to hold the pencil to avoid calligraphy problems. Students sit with both feet on the floor and hips against the chair. Students can incline forward lightly if needed but do not curve their spine. Students ensure the surface where they are going to write is smooth and flat and at their proper height with the correct regular-sized pencil. Students can use pens once they are familiar with writing cursive in pencil. Teachers show the importance of the position of the paper when writing and that students should use the non-writing hand to hold the paper. The teacher verifies that students are following the indications and descriptions she taught by informally assessing as they write and adjust if needed. Differentiation based on student needs is the basis for teaching cursive. Although the materials provide supports for grade-level appropriate instruction in cursive handwriting, there is no mention of implementation with the lessons nor guidance on when to teach it or how to incorporate it in the lessons.

“Guía del maestro” includes a visual guide for teachers on how to trace letters in both Script and Cursive typefaces. It also includes detailed explanations and visuals of the letters printed on lined paper with numbered arrows that allow teachers to identify the order and direction of the traces. The teacher explains the tracing and formation of letters in cursive and how the pencil should rarely be lifted when writing to ensure fluency. Students receive handouts with the cursive writing letters and the printed writing letters R6 to R8 so they can use them continuously as needed. The materials provide full-color and printable posters that remind students how to connect letters and the importance of their size and shape. In every lesson regarding word-decoding, there is only a small paragraph where they ask that students write the spelling words of the week either using a keyboard or with their own handwriting. “Pida a los estudiantes que escriban a mano o en un teclado las palabras de ortografía para practicar la caligrafía o el uso del teclado. Si es necesario, use los modelos de caligrafía de la sección de recursos de esta Guía del maestro.”

Instructional materials provide support for discussing capital letters, directions to read cursive writing, and directions on how to practice cursive writing. The Teacher’s Guide section on calligraphy offers a detailed outline for teachers to teach cursive handwriting not within a specific module. The materials provide teachers with background knowledge students should have in cursive writing to be able to differentiate instruction. Background knowledge includes students being familiarized with “conceptos de tamaño (alto, bajo), letras abiertas y cerradas, letras mayúsculas y minúsculas, letra de imprenta y letra cursiva, el espaciamiento entre letras y palabras, y puntuación.” Teachers inform students that names begin with a capital and letters need to connect the upper with the lowercase. Students practice writing the names of states: Alabama, California, Florida, Nueva York. Teachers explain that some letters D, P, T, V, and W do not connect with the next letter. 

Instructional materials include some support for teachers to evaluate the students’ handwriting development. The Recursos provide some guidance for assessing and measuring students’ writing development. Aside from providing a guide on how to trace letters in both Script and Cursive typefaces, the teacher resources include one brief paragraph that tells teachers how to assess students’ handwriting by suggesting to revise their own writing and checking if students are forming the letters correctly and using the adequate spacing and size for the letters. Teachers look for the appropriate spacing between words to make the text legible. Otherwise, there is no evidence of guidance for assessment strategies to support students’ handwriting development. Instructional materials share a resource that includes opportunities for students to practice cursive handwriting. 

Evaluation for 3.C.1
Materials support students’ listening and speaking about texts.

Materials support students’ listening and speaking about texts. Speaking and listening opportunities allow students to demonstrate comprehension. Most oral tasks require students to use clear and concise information and well-defended text-supported claims to demonstrate the knowledge gained through analysis and synthesis of text.

Evidence includes but is not limited to:

Instructional materials provide speaking and listening activities for students to demonstrate comprehension. The materials include opportunities to respond about information and topics of texts. In  Module 3, the Teacher’s Guide prompts the teacher to engage students in using a notecard about the author to share information. The teacher displays “Mostrar y motivar: Conocer al autor 3.2 y lea la información en voz alta con los estudiantes.” Students share a piece of information about the author that was unusual or interesting. 

Students use text-supported claims to demonstrate comprehension during speaking and listening activities. For instance, in Module 5, when they are watching the video “¿Cómo Viajamos al Pasado con una Foto?” students annotate as they watch and listen, and then respond to open-ended questions like “¿Qué está tratando de entender Kira sobre las fotografías?” and “¿Cuál es una de las razones por las que a las personas les interesaría tomar fotografías históricas?” The teacher displays a video and provides questions for students to reflect on and annotate. As students watch the video, students think about the questions “¿De qué forma te ayuda la conversación a comprender las fotografías del video? ¿Hacen Kira y el curador del museo que el tema sea interesante? ¿Por qué sí o por qué no?” 

The materials provide speaking and listening opportunities in other lessons. For example, in Module 6, during the cause and effect lesson, students work with a partner to reread the text and find the cause of the ringing of the rocks. Teachers guide students to reread “las páginas 36 y 37 de miLibro” and provide the guiding question, “Identifica la causa del tintineo que producen las rocas.” The text explains several possible causes, and students discuss the different options based on the textual evidence. 

There are opportunities to practice speaking and listening to the texts to support student understanding. After every passage, students participate in a “collaborative conversation” with a partner or a team. In Module 5, after reading El Arte de la Poesía, the teacher guides students to discuss with a partner the answer to questions based on textual evidence: “trabaja en grupo y comenta las preguntas de abajo. Busca detalles en El arte de la poesía para apoyar tus ideas.” These questions include closed-ended questions that require very specific answers and open-ended questions that require students to analyze or synthesize the text to respond. For example, in El Arte de la Poesía, students reread the poem “Mejor diversión” and answer the question “¿Qué imágenes crean las palabras del autor en tu mente?” The answer to the question offers different possible answers since it deals with how each student visualizes as they read. The materials also provide opportunities to share information through collaborative activities, such as Think-Pair-Share, which students do at the end of every lesson to reflect on their learning.

In Module 10, students read the text La historia de las comunicaciones and engage in collaborative conversations in groups. Students reread what they had initially annotated before reading the text and change their responses if needed. Students engage in structured conversations with thinking partners where they discuss ideas and find answers to questions supported by text evidence. Teachers provide questions from a range of critical thinking levels. For example, question 1 asks students to reread specific pages and respond to the following question: “¿Qué te indica el crecimiento del negocio de la imprenta acerca de los intereses que tenían las personas de esa época?” Students have to find the evidence in the text to answer these questions. 

The materials include an additional extension activity in the same module, where students explain a new invention and publish a newspaper article. Students receive a set of guidelines when writing their newspaper article: “Presenta el tema con claridad, incluye detalles e información del texto, incluye vocabulario y uso precisos, e incluye un diagrama, dibujo u otro elemento visual que ayude a los lectores a comprender mejor la invención.” Teachers guide students to share their findings with small groups or partners by engaging in a think-pair-share activity to reinforce the language development of listening and speaking.

In Module 10, students view videos on communication tools and read an informational text La historia de las comunicaciones. After students listen to text read out loud, students work in pairs to discuss what was learned in the text and answer critical thinking questions. Examples of questions include: “¿Qué te indica el crecimiento del negocio de la imprenta acerca de los intereses que tenían las personas de esa época? Repasa las páginas 318 y 319. ¿Por qué la radio era mejor que el teléfono y el telégrafo?” Students work in groups to find details and examples in the text to explain their responses. Teacher reminds students, “Asegúrate de que tus ideas estén relacionadas con la pregunta que está comentando el grupo. Reserva las ideas sobre otros temas para otra ocasión.”

Evaluation for 3.C.2
Materials engage students in productive teamwork and in student-led discussions, in both formal and informal settings.

Materials engage students in productive teamwork and in student-led discussion in both formal and informal settings. Materials provide guidance and practice with grade-level protocols for discussion to express their own thinking, develop social communication skills, organize presentations/performances, and use nonverbal communication when presenting before an audience.

Evidence includes but is not limited to:

The materials offer activities for students to practice speaking and listening in classroom discussions. For example, in Module 1, the teacher engages students in classroom discussions by selecting students to share how they used taught skills in reading. Teachers select students to sit in the author's chair, or “Silla Individual Cada día,” to share what they have learned with their peers.

The instructional materials provide “Rutina de visualización activa en acción,” a three-step routine for engaging in collaborative discussions. One example of the instructions is: “Invite a los estudiantes a ‘compartir la lectura’ al repetir las secciones que usted lee, leer los versos en eco después de usted, e identificar y explicar las palabras que reconocen.” In Module 3, teachers facilitate discussions by using Anchor Charts and notes gathered during independent reading time. Students issue the notes and use the “Cartel didáctico 8: Sintetizar” to share annotations with peers. 

Instructional materials include suggestions for students to develop social communication skills that are appropriate to their grade level. The resource titled “Minilecciones del rotafolio de mesa” offers opportunities for students to engage in conversations by completing sentence stems that go with the skills being taught to facilitate conversations. Examples of the sentence stems include: “¿Entiendo lo que leí sobre...? Usé...para clarificar mi comprensión de....” Teachers provide students with a word bank (i.e., “persuadir, informar, entretener”) to complete the first line.

The materials provide multiple protocols and opportunities for students to engage in discussions. For example, in every module, there is one phase of the project that needs to be completed weekly, and students work in teams to do so. For example, the project for Module 6 is to create a museum exhibit about living in an extreme environment. During the first week, students collaborate to brainstorm examples of extreme environments and discuss the museum exhibit. As they conduct research, students annotate the ideas on a shared document. Week 2 continues with students choosing an extreme environment and deciding what artifacts or visuals they could use to create their exhibit. The following week, students plan and prepare a presentation about their extreme environment and their museum exhibit and present the actual exhibit. 

Throughout the modules, there are opportunities for students to give organized presentations and speak in a clear and concise manner. For example, in Module 7, students deliver presentations to the class to tell a short story. Materials provide guidance on how to organize their presentation: “revisar la historia y anotar los eventos en orden cronológico en la parte superior de una tarjeta, luego agregar detalles e imágenes sensoriales para describir los eventos; busque imágenes, sonidos o música que puedan hacer la historia más vívida y márquelos en las tarjetas para saber cuándo serán presentados.” The teacher guides students when delivering their presentation to focus on the sequence of events and reminds them to speak “ con claridad y a un ritmo apropiado.”

The materials provide guidance for student use of non-verbal communication when presenting. For example, in Module 7, when students make a presentation on a short story, the materials provide some suggestions about the importance of using facial expressions and gestures as well as using expression in their voice. “Relaten el cuento frente a un espejo para que practiquen cómo usar expresiones y gestos faciales. Sean muy expresivos a la hora de contar el cuento. Los buenos relatores usan la expresión para darle vida a los personajes y los sucesos.” Teachers emphasize the importance of knowing the topic being presented and maintaining eye contact with their audience. Although there are no specific details about how to be expressive or how to teach gestures or voice expression, the materials do recommend that students use a mirror to self-monitor the use of gestures.

Throughout the modules, students have opportunities for small group rotations in both the Readers and Writers Workshop and collaborative conversations after each unit. In Module 9,  teachers introduce a lesson in a variety of ways that build students’ knowledge by “Activar los conocimientos previos, Desarrollar el contexto,” or play a video. In Module 10, after reading “La historia de las comunicaciones,” students work with partners to discuss their ideas about new learning and responses to critical thinking questions. Students work with partners to respond to guided discussion questions, such as “¿Qué te indica el crecimiento del negocio de la imprenta acerca de los intereses que tenían las personas de esa época? ¿Por qué la radio era mejor que el teléfono y el telégrafo? Teachers ask students “Asegúrate de que tus ideas estén relacionadas con la pregunta que está comentando el grupo. Reserva las ideas sobre otros temas para otra ocasión.”

Also, in Module 10, students work on research projects by collaborating, generating ideas, investigating, completing, and presenting a project based on the research. Students work in groups to conduct research and present. Before this oral group presentation, teachers guide students on how to present orally. Teachers guide students to work in “grupos para investigar un aspecto de la comunicación, como el invento del lenguaje, para escribir en un blog.” The materials provide specific instructions on how to conduct their research and guide thinking in order to be able to express their ideas when presenting their blog, such as “Recuerde a los estudiantes que existen varias fuentes de investigación que pueden usar, además de las lecturas de miLibro.” Students use “Proyecto del Modulo 10.1” to plan the presentation in groups, organize a presentation, create a final version to publish, and decide how to present.

Evaluation for 3.D.1
Materials engage students in both short-term and sustained recursive inquiry processes to confront and analyze various aspects of a topic using relevant sources.

Materials engage students in both short-term and sustained recursive inquiry processes to confront and analyze various aspects of a topic using relevant sources. Materials support identification and summary of high-quality primary and secondary sources. Materials support student practice in organizing and presenting their ideas and information in accordance with the purpose of the research and the appropriate grade-level audience and provide guidance to use an appropriate mode of delivery. 

Evidence includes but is not limited to:

Instructional materials include instruction on research skills and support student skills practice on different topics. The materials provide opportunities for students to learn about generating questions for a specific topic. In Module 2, the Teacher’s Guide includes activities for students to practice research skills. The activity prompts the teacher to guide students on finding digital articles, magazines, and print documents: “Anime a los estudiantes a incorporar alguna forma de medio en sus presentaciones, como fotos o videos, para ayudar a la audiencia a comprender mejor el tema.” Students have opportunities to search for digital images for their presentations.

Instructional materials include various levels of rigor for research projects. The modules begin with a general plan on how to do research, and lessons become more rigorous as the year progresses. Module 1 provides a general activity to initiate research, while Module 2 includes more detail regarding sources to navigate in order to complete tasks. In Module 4, the Teacher Guide includes a task for students to determine whether the information obtained is appropriate for the given topic. The teacher demonstrates how to evaluate information: “Verifique que los estudiantes decidan qué información es relevante y guíelos según sea necesario a la hora de organizar la información.” Students take notes on the information found for their research. 

The materials provide students with a graphic organizer that helps them take notes as they conduct their research. Research projects throughout the year have different levels of rigor depending on the focus of the lesson. For example, in Module 6, the research project focuses on how to use the knowledge and skills obtained during the module in a practical application. The instructions on how to conduct research are very brief:  “Recuérdeles que pueden usar varias fuentes de investigación además de las lecturas de miLibro, por ejemplo, sitios web, atlas y enciclopedias. Diga a los estudiantes que a medida que encuentran información útil, deben registrarla y citar sus fuentes.” In Writer’s Workshop Module 7, the focus is on conducting an investigation to develop a research report. Materials devote three entire lessons to finding and evaluating the primary and secondary sources, collecting and sorting information, and notetaking prior to starting their report.

The materials provide opportunities for students to learn, practice, apply, and transfer skills into familiar and new topics. For example, materials allow students to develop a research project with every module, such as creating an art project for the school in Module 5, an exhibit of an extreme environment in module 6, or an advertising campaign in Module 8. Also, during Writer’s Workshop, students have the opportunity to transfer and apply skills into a writing project, which ranges from letters and blogs to more complex research reports or persuasive essays.

The materials guide teachers to support students in different modes of delivery of research, which includes written, oral, and multimodal modes of presentation. For example, in Module 6, students research an extreme environment. Students present their findings in an exhibit involving visuals and print information of the environment they researched. In Module 7, students research fables and legends. They write and publish a literary magazine and give an oral presentation to show their work to the audience. In Writer’s Workshop Module 7, students write a research report. The mode of presentation of their findings is written form. In Module 8, students create a restaurant menu and an advertising campaign for the restaurant. Students make a multimodal presentation involving oral, visual, and written components. 

The materials support the identification and summary of high-quality primary and secondary resources.  In Module 9, teachers display “Mostrar y motivar: Writing Research 9.4” to help students distinguish between primary and secondary sources for research. Students write a research paper with details and facts explaining why an animal or plant should be protected. The “Mostrar y Motivar” cards highlight the following: secondary and primary sources—a primary source happens at the time of the event. “Comienza la investigación. Recuerda que las fuentes confiables incluyen sitios de noticias y educativos, sitos del gobierno y sitios de organizaciones ambientales locales o nacionales.” After the teacher displays that card and explains the difference, students see a graph comparing and contrasting secondary and primary sources. On one side of the card, the teacher provides examples of primary sources: speeches, autobiographies, newspaper articles, photographs and videos, and emails. On the other side of the card, the teacher provides examples of secondary sources: magazine articles, websites, web entries, encyclopedias or other reference books, textbooks, including biographies. Students apply these skills when they evaluate the sources and ask themselves a series of guided questions, including “Is this a primary or secondary source?” Students use examples of the types of sources in the same card, and then students write the research paper. 

All modules have an embedded research project that synthesizes what they learned and allows students to make connections. For example, in Module 10, students connect what they have learned about communication by researching collaboratively, generating ideas, investigating, and presenting the project. Students work in small groups for three weeks to conduct research on a communication technique and present the findings in a blog and orally to the class. Students keep these questions at the forefront of their research: “¿Qué medios de comunicación conozco? ¿Cuáles medios de comunicación uso con más frecuencia? ¿Cuáles son los tipos de comunicación que más me gusta usar?” Teachers develop the theme by asking students what they think when they hear the word communication, along with “What are some ways people use to communicate?” The teacher annotates all ideas on the board to brainstorm. The teacher explains that through history, people have created many inventions for communications and that different people communicate in different ways. Students work in groups to investigate a communication tool they would like to investigate and write a blog. The teacher shares examples of blogs and points out components of a good blog, like statistics, quotes, interesting headlines, precise writing, personal stories, and photos or attractive illustrations. The explicit research connects the theme of the module.

Evaluation for 3.E.1
Materials contain interconnected tasks that build student knowledge and provide opportunities for increased independence.

Materials contain interconnected tasks that build student knowledge and provide opportunities for increased independence. Questions and tasks are designed to help students build and apply knowledge and skills in reading, writing, speaking, listening, thinking, and language. Materials contain a coherently sequenced set of high-quality, text-dependent questions and tasks that require students to analyze the integration of knowledge and ideas within individual texts as well as across multiple texts. Tasks integrate reading, writing, speaking, listening, and thinking, including components of vocabulary, syntax, and fluency, as needed, and provide opportunities for increased independence.

Evidence includes but is not limited to:

The materials interconnect activities to practice integrated skills. In Module 1, the Teacher 's Guide includes a task designed for students to read, speak, write, listen, think, and apply the objective. During the “Proyecto de investigación,” students create an oral story: “Diga a los estudiantes que durante las próximas semanas trabajarán en grupos para reunir cuentos de compañeros de clase o vecinos para un proyecto de historia oral.” Teachers organize student groups and facilitate the project: “Guíe a los grupos para que creen un Tablero de ideas o documento grupal donde registren y comenten las lluvias de ideas, compartan citas y otra información de su investigación.” The Teacher’s Guide provides stems for students to use as they discuss: “Muestre la siguiente oración para completar: Alguien a quien podríamos entrevistar es.... Deberíamos preguntarle sobre....” To complete this task, students identify a person they want to interview. Materials provide activities for the teacher to scaffold so students can gain more independence in completing the task: “Además de a compañeros de clase y vecinos, los grupos podrían entrevistar a personas que hayan vivido en la comunidad durante mucho tiempo, que tengan trabajos o experiencias interesantes o que, simplemente, sean buenos narradores de cuentos.” Teachers share how questions provide information about the person they are interviewing. The teacher provides a question to initiate classroom interviews: “Cuenta un acontecimiento clave. ¿Por qué es importante?”

Materials include tasks for classroom discussion and for writing about familiar topics. In Module 2, the Teacher’s Guide provides suggestions to guide students in a classroom discussion about asking questions. The teacher is prompted: “Explique que al hacer y contestar preguntas, profundizan su comprensión y adquieren información. Diga a los estudiantes que la asociación entre el pez payaso y la anémona de mar es un video en el terreno o ámbito de la ciencia. Describe cómo los animales usan cada uno de los cinco sentidos para sobrevivir en sus ambientes.” Materials guide the teacher to explain, “Explique que una forma de hacer preguntas antes de ver un video es pensar en lo que los estudiantes ya saben. Como ya saben que el video es la asociación entre el pez payaso y la anémona de mar pida a los estudiantes que piensen en lo que ya saben sobre los cinco sentidos.” Students apply what they have learned in the text.

Materials include projects that involve interconnected tasks and activities to apply knowledge and skills in reading, writing, speaking, listening, thinking, and language. For example, in Module 5, in the Proyecto de investigación, students create an art project for the school. Students discuss different forms of art currently displayed at school. Students research projects to beautify a school using different sources, such as magazines, internet, and interviews of personnel from other schools and annotate findings. The first phase of the project involves all skills as students are thinking, listening, speaking, reading, and writing while using the language. In the second phase of the project, “Escribir y crear,” students share the findings and brainstorm a project to implement based on the ideas they already have. Students annotate the argument they would use to persuade the school to implement the project. “Comienza con lo que propones como proyecto de arte y luego da tus razones para esta propuesta.” This stage of the project requires students to discuss and listen as they integrate writing. For the third and last phase of the project, “Presentar y reflexionar,” students deliver a presentation of the project to the class. This activity allows students the opportunity to practice speaking to an audience and sharpen their listening skills as an audience. “Practica la expresión oral con claridad, a un ritmo que sea cómodo y con un tono de voz adecuado para que las personas que están lejos te puedan oír. Recuerda mirar a la audiencia mientras hablas.” 

The materials follow a coherent sequence of text-focused tasks and activities that integrate multiple literacy skills and provide opportunities for increased independence. At the end of every module, the materials include a “Performance Task” that allows students to synthesize what they learned throughout the module into one task and includes questions that will guide them to culminate the task successfully in an independent way. For example, in Module 6, the task is to write a scientific article about how “La Fosa de las Marianas” and “El Gran Cañón” were formed. The materials provide tips on the organization of the article, content, vocabulary, and language. For example, students must make sure that their scientific article “tiene una introducción que presenta el tema con claridad, incluye hechos, incluye detalles y ejemplos tomados del texto que apoyan la idea principal; tiene párrafos que agrupan toda la información relacionada; incluye conectores como ‘además, pero y sin embargo’; tiene una conclusión que resume la información.” The materials guide students step by step to develop the task. First, students gather information. The teacher displays the following question: “¿Qué detalles de las selecciones te ayudarán a comparar y contrastar las fuerzas de la naturaleza que dieron forma a esos lugares?” Students complete a Venn Diagram to compare both places. 

The materials contain a coherently sequenced set of high-quality, text-dependent questions and tasks. In Module 9, students read a novel and use text evidence to answer questions with a partner during a collaborative conversation: “¿Por qué Luz se siente desanimada cuando empieza con el proyecto?” Students go to the story to find the evidence to respond to the question. “Vuelve a leer las páginas 216 y 217. ¿Qué quiere hacer Luz con el baldío que hay en su vecindario?” Students write a diary entry from the characters point of view: “Escribe una entrada de diario sobre lo que viviste en el parque el día de la inauguración.” Students ensure the diary entry includes a first person point of view narrator: “tiene un narrador de la primera persona e incluye pronombres de la primera persona como yo, me y mí.”

Tasks integrate reading, writing, speaking, listening, and thinking, including components of vocabulary and syntax. In Module 9, the materials provide a table of essential vocabulary words, and students complete a vocabulary web in their own book. The teacher displays a word web, and students orally share synonyms, antonyms, and words to be added. After reading, the teacher refers to the web to add more words. Students annotate predictions about what a story will be about using keywords: frequencia, autosuficiente, oasis, autorización, instalan, abandonado. Students engage in a collaborative conversation with peers to answer critical thinking questions after reading the novel. For example, “¿Qué quiere hacer Luz con el baldío que hay en su vecindario? ¿Por qué Luz cree que su proyecto le servirá a la comunidad y al planeta?” Students write a diary entry from the main character’s perspective about what was experienced using key critical vocabulary.

Evaluation for 3.E.2
Materials provide spiraling and scaffolded practice.

Materials provide spiraling and scaffolded practice. Materials support distributed practice over the course of the year for students to demonstrate integration of literacy skills that spiral over the school year.

Evidence includes but is not limited to:

The materials reinforce skills mastered through different tasks. Materials include the resource “Minilecciones del rotafolio de mesa: Lectura” to provide guidance to ensure students master the intent of the standard. The teacher adjusts instruction for students to understand unknown words, such as “Busquen una palabra desconocida en el texto e identifiquen pistas de su significado.” Students practice finding unknown words and determine the meaning using context clues. 

Instructional materials include scaffolds and supports for students to demonstrate integration of literacy skills. In Module 3, the Teacher’s Guide allows students to practice visualization using anchor charts. Teachers explain, “que cuando lean estos relatos descriptivos, pueden detenerse cada tanto para visualizar lo que está sucediendo. Los buenos lectores crean imágenes en sus mentes mientras leen. La visualización facilita la comprensión del texto.” Students visualize by pausing throughout the text. The materials guide the teacher with “Diga a los estudiantes que practicarán cómo visualizar mientras leen El huracán de Galveston de 1900.”

The materials provide a scope and sequence chart for targeted skills and TEKS. Skills are key to develop reading comprehension, such as summarization, point of view, text features, questioning, or text structure in every module. The skills are repeatedly addressed within and across the units to ensure students master the full intent of the standard. For example, the materials address the skill of “monitor comprehension” in various modules, i.e., Module 1, Module 4, Module 5, and Module 6. However, the materials address other skills more specific to a genre in only one or two units. For example, the materials only cover elements of poetry in Module 5. 

Instructional materials include scaffolds and supports for additional practice for students. For example, the section “Bienvenidos al módulo” provides ideas to scaffold and build on prior knowledge and making connections. Teacher guidance includes, “A medida que los estudiantes leen y ven los textos y los medios de este módulo e interactúan con ellos, desarrollan un conocimiento profundo sobre la innovación, la perseverancia y el deseo de resolver problemas y cómo se conecta esta información con su vida.” Materials include visuals, “cartels didácticos,” video tutorials, and a resource called Guiding Principles and Strategies for teachers. In Module 6 students create a concept web to add information as they progress through the module. In the center, students write “Formas de arte” and branch out the concepts escritura, musica, and danza y actuación. Teachers inform students “que comenzarán a desarrollar el conocimiento del tema.” Throughout the module, students contribute ideas based on the learning. Materials guide teachers with, “Dígales que regresarán a estas páginas al final de cada semana para añadir la información prendida acerca del tema.” 

Instructional materials include an integration of literacy skills that spiral over the school year. In Module 7, students make predictions. Teachers display “Cartel didáctico 5: Hacer y confimar predicciones” and inform students “a medida que leen, es importante detenerse de vez en cuando para hacer una predicción sobre lo que podría ocurrir después y luego confirmar, cuando siguen leyendo, si sus predicciones fueron correctas.” Students practice the skill and confirm predictions when reading En los días del rey Adobe. In Module 12, the standard on predictions is spiraled. The teacher again displays Cartel didáctico 5: Hacer y confimar predicciones, and materials guide teachers to “Diga a los estudiantes que pueden cambiar sus predicciones a medida que continúan leyendo y reuniendo más información del texto.” Students make predictions with another genre in the unit and practice how to make and confirm predictions when reading La sartén por el mango.

Evaluation for 4.1
Materials provide systematic instruction and practice of foundational skills, including opportunities for phonics and word analysis skills (e.g., examination of grade-level prefixes and suffixes, decoding of multisyllabic words by using syllabication, and automaticity with grade-level orthographic rules and patterns).

Materials provide systematic instruction and practice of foundational skills, including opportunities for phonics and word analysis skills. Materials include a research-based sequence of skills, systematic instruction, and word analysis skills as delineated in the TEKS for grades 3–5. Materials provide opportunities for students to practice grade-level word recognition, apply word analysis, build spelling knowledge, and achieve grade-level mastery. Materials specifically attend to supporting students in need of effective remediation.

Evidence includes but is not limited to:

Instructional materials include foundational skills instruction and opportunities for students to achieve mastery. In Module 1, the Teacher’s Guide contains instructions to introduce words with an accent, known as “palabras graves.” The activity prompts the teacher to remind students that accents are written only if they end with a consonant, except when it ends with n or s. Students repeat decoding words, and teachers ask the similarities and differences between the words. An example of the instructions is: “Después de leer cada una de las primeras cuatro líneas, inicie una conversación sobre las palabras graves.” 

The materials provide opportunities for students to practice foundation skills with printable pages. In Module 2, the Teacher’s Guide includes instructions on how to introduce the different sounds of the letters l and ll. Teachers display the words loro y lloro and explain the different sounds each word makes. The teacher displays the words “alondra, balada y pellejo” and guides students to identify words with l and ll sounds. Students work in small groups or with a partner on printable page 48 from the resource “Aprende y demuestra.” The printable includes fill-in-the-blank where students choose between two words. An example of the instructions is: “Guíe a los estudiantes para que identifiquen las palabras con l y las palabras con ll.”

Instructional materials provide opportunities for students to practice and apply word analysis skills. Materials include activities where students determine the meaning of unfamiliar phrases. Module 3 of the Teacher’s Guide contains lessons for teachers to explain idioms, adages, and proverbs. Teachers display an anchor chart and discuss common sayings that make texts more interesting and lively. Students practice recognizing and describing idioms, adages, and proverbs in the story Atrápame si puedes.

Instructional materials provide opportunities for students to practice decoding. The materials include activities for students to decode words with multiple sound-spelling patterns, such as ca, que, qui, co, cu, and k. In Module 3, the Teacher’s Guide prompts the teacher to display and read aloud the word casa. The teacher underlines the letter c in the word and models the sound of the letter c as the /k/ sound. Students read aloud a list of words, emphasizing the sound /k/ and dividing the words into syllables. An example of the instructions is: “Demuestre cómo se lee y señale que en esta palabra la letra c tiene el sonido /k/.”

In the Teacher Resources, the supplemental “Taller de Destrezas Fundamentales: Fonética y Decodificación” lists a phonics scope and sequence. The focus for Lesson 1 is open syllables (p, s, m, t, n, l, f, d, r, b); Lesson 2 closed syllables (-l, -s, -n, -m, -r); lesson 3 hard and soft consonant sounds (ca, co, cu, ce, ci, ga, go, gu, ge, gi). The resource lists lessons developed; however, it displays the note “Resource coming soon.” Therefore, it cannot be analyzed.

The materials provide regular practice for decoding words. For example, every module includes lessons on decoding. In Module 7, students decode words with b and v. The teacher models decoding the words vaca and baño and highlights that the syllables va and ba sound the same. “Explique a los estudiantes que hay muchas reglas que explican si una palabra con sonido /b/se escribe con b o v, pero que por ahora van a aprender las palabras leyendo y escribiéndolas.” Students practice decoding and breaking other words into syllables (vapor, dibujo, velero, cabaña, cebolla, barbacoa, oveja, cambio, hablar, obrador). No evidence was found on practices for encoding words.

The materials include systematic instruction of orthographic rules and patterns. The materials include explicit instruction for understanding prefixes, suffixes, root words, syllabification, etc. For example, in Module 7, students learn the suffixes -dad and -ura. The teacher models how to decode the words that appear on the poster “Mostrar y motivar. Vocabulario generativo 7.13,” which includes words ending with both suffixes. Students decode the remaining words and, in pairs, figure out the root word from which each word comes. 

In Module 9, the “Reading Workshop,” materials provide minilessons to work with small groups in need of scaffolding and reinforcement of skills. Teachers use the minilessons from “Tarjeta de lectura 23” to reinforce main and secondary ideas. Students work in small groups with the teacher to complete a graphic organizer that outlines the objective. The graphic organizer helps students classify their thinking and evaluate text for main and secondary ideas. “El organizador gráfico incluye los recuadros: título, opinión o afirmación del autor, y cuatro recuadros para justificar la razón / evidencia para cada cuadro.” Students engage in these lessons while other students read independently. 

The materials develop grade-level phonics patterns and word analysis. Module 10, “Vistazo a la semana,” provides a phonics scope and sequence and lessons for teachers. For example, in the lesson on Hiatuses and Diphthongs, the teacher explains that vowel blends with two vowels belong to two categories, diphthongs and hiatuses. The teacher explains that when weak vowels i and u are combined with one another or with the strong vowels a, e, u, the resulting blend makes a sound that is not divided into syllables. The blend is called a diphthong. Teachers complete guided practice with students with the words bueno, cuidado, and pienso. Teacher models think-aloud: “La palabra bueno tiene la combinación ue. La palabra cuidado tiene la combinación ui. La palabra pienso tiene la combinación ie. Esas combinaciones no se separan al leer las palabras o al dividirlas en sílabas.” The teacher divides the word into syllables and underlines the syllables with diphthongs. Students work with partners to read the lines and quiz each other on diphthongs. For further practice, students work in small groups or with partners to complete page 208 of “Aprende y demuestra.” Students identify the hiatuses and diphthongs in sentences and circle hiatus or underline diphthongs and write the words divided into syllables.

Evaluation for 4.2
Materials include diagnostic tools and provide opportunities to assess student mastery, in and out of context, at regular intervals for teachers to make instructional adjustments.

Materials include diagnostic tools to assess student mastery at regular intervals for teachers to make instructional adjustments. Materials include tools to support and direct teachers to assess students’ growth on foundational skills (e.g., skill gaps in phonics and decoding) both in and out of context. Materials support teachers with guidance and direction to respond to individual students’ literacy needs and help students self-monitor, use context to confirm or self-correct understanding, and employ rereading when appropriate.

Evidence includes but is not limited to:

Assessments consistently occur over the course of the year and are varied. The materials provide a weekly assessment that includes a reading comprehension passage with questions and a writing passage for correction. Materials also provide module assessment, which includes reading and writing and an online evaluation for “Growth Measure” administered at the beginning, the middle, and the end of the year. Materials provide “Evaluaciones de diagnóstico” and “Evaluaciones para verificar el progreso.” These assessments address all foundational literacy skills, like phonics, word recognition, and fluency, and they provide forms to keep a record of each student’s data and growth.

Assessments include directions for the teacher on how to administer them and how to evaluate them. For example, to assess fluency, the diagnostic and progress assessments even provide the scripted instructions of what the teacher needs to tell the students: “Diga: Lee el siguiente pasaje en voz alta. Léelo lo mejor que puedas. No puedo ayudarte, así que si encuentras una palabra que no sabes, haz lo mejor que puedas. Después de que leas, te pediré que vuelvas a contar el pasaje con tus propias palabras. Si el estudiante se detiene en una palabra y no continúa, espere aproximadamente cinco segundos y luego anímelo a seguir leyendo, diciendo: Por favor, intenta seguir. No le diga la palabra. Después de la lectura, pida al estudiante que vuelva a contar el pasaje con sus propias palabras.”

The materials include tools to support and direct teachers to assess students’ growth and mastery both in and out of context. All modules provide weekly assessments for reading and writing skills. In Module 1, the Teacher's Guide includes “Evaluación y supervisión del progreso” to provide information about the tools available for continuous formative assessments. The teacher utilizes leveled readers, short comprehension tests, continuous records, and observation records to assess the skills of the students. For example, teachers assess student reading responses to check for understanding: “Evalúe la comprensión de las lecturas de miLibro.” Students participate in formative assessments when stories are completed, such as “Lecturas por niveles, Pruebas cortas de comprensión, Registros continuos, o Registros de la observación 1:1.”

The materials provide progress monitoring assessments to monitor students’ mastery of skills. The assessment titled “HMH Growth Measure Lectura en Español” measures comprehension skills and is available three times during the year. The assessment includes approximately 30 questions and is assigned to a whole class or assigned individually. The materials state, “La Medida de crecimiento de la lectura en español de HMH es un set de pruebas en línea basadas en resultados de investigaciones.”

Instructional materials include guidance for teachers to work with students to self-monitor. Materials include printable pages for teachers to model how to read texts and discuss techniques students use to read accurately. In Module 1, the Teacher's Guide offers instructions for teachers to distribute printable page 1.1 to model how to read the passage using self-corrective strategies. The teacher reads a passage with hesitation and explains to students that the reading is not smooth. The teacher states, “Estoy leyendo palabra por palabra. Mi lectura no es fluida. Debo mirar hacia adelante cuando leo, para ver las palabras que siguen. Así, mi lectura será fluida.” Students work in pairs to read a passage aloud and practice self-correct strategies.

Throughout each module, teachers receive explicit guidance and instruction on how to teach a skill through introduction, guided practice, modeled thinking (including verbatim instructions), cooperative groups, and independent practice. Materials provides tips, additional resources, and intervention sections, such as “Evalúe la comprensión que el estudiante ha alcanzado de las destrezas clave de lectura y escritura que se enseñan en cada semana de aprendizaje. For example, Module 9 provides teachers with weekly assessments to guide instruction and determine interventions regarding comprehension, inferences, text characteristics, graphic elements, theme, idiomatic expressions, suffixes -able -ible, vocabulary strategies, synonyms and antonyms, decodification, open syllables with x, and grammar punctuation. The materials guide teachers with, “Si los estudiantes necesitan una intervención estratégica, elija entre las opciones diarias para aprender en grupos pequeños.” Teachers use the online “Taller de destrezas fundamentales y estudio de palabras” to offer additional support and scaffolding as needed.”

The materials support teachers with guidance and direction to respond to individual students’ literacy needs based on tools and assessments appropriate to the grade level. Module 11 includes support to assess students’ growth and mastery of foundational skills. For example, teachers measure learning of homophones with a variety of assessments. The materials include an assessment on homophones in the Teacher's Guide that measures student learning of the skill towards the end of the module called “Aprende y demuestra pg. 231.” The worksheet includes the definition of homophones to reinforce what was learned and asks students to choose the correct word to complete each sentence (fill in the blank) and underline context clues that help find the correct word. An example of the questions in the evaluation handout: “La...(caza/casa) tenía tres habitaciones y dos baños.” “Debes distinguir entre un... (echo/hecho) y una opinión.” Students select the correct spelling for the meaning of the sentence.

Evaluation for 4.3
Materials provide frequent opportunities for students to practice and develop oral and silent reading fluency while reading a wide variety of grade-appropriate texts at the appropriate rate with accuracy and expression to support comprehension.

Materials provide frequent opportunities for students to practice and develop oral and silent reading fluency while reading with accuracy and expression to support comprehension. Materials provide students opportunities to read grade-level texts as they make meaning and build foundational skills. Materials include explicit instruction and provide students opportunities with fluency, including phrasing, intonation, expression, accuracy, and corrective feedback on phrasing intonation, expression, and accuracy.

Evidence includes but is not limited to:

Instructional materials provide opportunities for students to develop reading skills and make meaning of grade-level texts. Materials include selections that are grade-level appropriate with opportunities for students to determine important ideas of what they just read. Every module provides a section titled “Vistazo a los textos” with a summary of the text, including Lexile level and skills found in the text. In Module 1, the Teacher's Guide provides lessons with specific skills embedded for each selection. For example, “Explique que los autores proporcionarán detalles de apoyo que ayuden a los lectores a identificar la idea principal. Los detalles de apoyo incluyen el título del texto y los títulos de las diferentes secciones dentro del texto.” Students practice finding the main idea after materials guide teachers to “Diga a los estudiantes que practicarán cómo buscar la idea principal y los detalles de apoyo mientras leen el ensayo fotográfico, El cuento de tu vida.” 

Instructional materials provide opportunities and routines for teachers to monitor and provide feedback on fluency components. The materials include suggestions for teachers to record the students’ progress in oral reading fluency. The resource titled “Formularios de registro globales” includes printable pages for teachers to track the students’ progress in oral reading fluency. Materials provide passages for teachers to calculate the words-correct-per-minute (WCPM) for each student. The resource titled “Evaluaciones para verificar el progreso: Grado 4 a 6: Formularios 1 a 21” includes printable pages for teachers and students. The teacher page includes a section for the teacher to record how many words were read in a minute. Students use the same passage each time to read aloud. The resource titled “Guías para la administración y calificación” includes instructions for teachers to calculate the reading levels of the students and use data to determine the students’ needs in oral reading fluency. Example of instructions: “Analice los errores y autocorrecciones del estudiante en cada sección para identificar las áreas problemáticas y establecer un punto de partida para el refuerzo, el repaso y la práctica adicional.”

The materials provide varied practice opportunities over the course of the year for students to read both oral and silent reading. Every module includes texts from different genres that students read during the class. Materials provide a set of leveled readers for independent reading that students work with while in small groups or independently. The materials also include additional reading passages to practice fluency every week.

Materials provide explicit instruction in oral reading fluency, including instruction in phrasing, intonation, expression, and accuracy through weekly lessons. For example, in Module 6, the first lesson focuses on Accuracy and Self-correction, the second week focuses on Reading Rate, and the third week focuses on Intonation. Lessons provide explicit instruction by telling the teacher exactly what to do and how to model the skill. In the Lesson devoted to Intonation, students follow the reading as the teacher reads aloud the first paragraph, first in a monotonous tone and then with intonation. Materials guide the teacher to, “Lea el párrafo sin entonación ni expresión. Vuelva a leer el párrafo con fluidez demostrando la entonación. Use una entonación inadecuada para una oración y demuestre cómo autocorregirse. Comente algunas técnicas para leer con la entonación apropiada, como mirar la puntuación o buscar comas para determinar el fraseo.” Afterward, students read orally altogether.

Materials provide opportunities over the course of the year for students to develop reading skills and make meaning of grade-level texts. Materials provide opportunities to retell, summarize, synthesize, determine important ideas, etc., to make meaning of what they just read. For example, in Module 8, after reading “Bocaditos de insectos,” students participate in a collaborative conversation to develop the skill of synthesizing with questions like “¿Qué ejemplos brinda el autor para apoyar la idea de que comer insectos es una práctica muy popular?” Teachers provide students a copy of the quick check “Prueba corta de lectura” that includes five multiple-choice questions about the text to check for understanding to assess comprehension of grade-level texts.

Materials include explicit instruction in fluency, including phrasing, intonation, expression, and accuracy. In Module 9, materials include explicit instruction in reading expression: pitch, rhythm, volume, and tone. The teacher introduces the skill of reading with expression (voice change/intonation). The teacher explains “Un buen lector leerá las palabras del texto tal como se las diría a un amigo.” The teacher leads the whole group discussion on reading a passage with expression while students follow along in their “Paginas Imprimibles: Fluidez 9.1.” The teacher reads flatly without pausing at the commas and without emphasis, and students are prompted to think aloud by saying, “Si leo este pasaje con expresión, haré una pausa en las comas y enfatizaré las palabras importantes. Escucha mientras lo releo.” The teacher rereads the passage with expressions, pointing out the pace was adjusted, words were emphasized, and tone or pitch was adjusted. Students then read the passage aloud with the teacher using Echo Reading Routine. Students work in pairs or small groups using the Partner Reading routine to read the passage aloud. The teacher monitors students for expression and intervenes if appropriate with small group lessons from the Reading Workshop on Fluency.

Materials provide students opportunities to read grade-level texts as they make meaning and build foundational skills. In Module 10, students receive opportunities over the course of the year to read with accuracy and fluency in every module. There are different types of texts and reading styles students use: independent, choral, peer reading, echo reading, etc. The active listening component of the lesson increases students’ reading fluency and develops comprehension. Students develop comprehension by reading independently and considering the genre to establish their purpose before reading. Students support comprehension by using resources with the reading. The materials guide teachers to “Acceda en línea a las Páginas imprimibles, y otros recursos que requieren que los estudiantes vuelvan a leer las Lecturas por niveles para distintos propósitos.”

Evaluation for 5.1
Materials include developmentally-appropriate diagnostic tools (e.g. formative and summative progress monitoring) and guidance for teachers, students, and administrators to monitor progress.

Materials include developmentally appropriate diagnostic tools and guidance for teachers and students to monitor progress. Diagnostic tools are developmentally appropriate (e.g., formative, summative progress monitoring, observational, anecdotal, and formal). Materials provide guidance to ensure consistent and accurate administration and measure all content and process skills for SLAR, as outlined in the TEKS. Materials include tools for students to track their own progress and growth. 

Evidence includes but is not limited to:

Instructional materials include diagnostic tools for third through fifth grade. The materials contain an ample selection of materials for teachers to evaluate student learning week by week and module by module. Materials include formative and summative assessments designed to measure what the students can do independently. For example, every module includes weekly assessments, a module assessment, and a quiz for the stories. The weekly module assessments are based on content TEKS and consist of multiple-choice and open-ended questions and an electronic adapted version. Answer keys are provided with exemplar responses and SLAR TEKS for each question. The weekly assessments measure student learning in reading and writing skills. The reading section assesses comprehension and vocabulary, and the writing section focuses on grammatical skills taught. The reading assessment consists of two reading passages, one writing passage, and a composition. The composition correlates with the writing topic of the module.

The materials include another type of informal diagnostic tool. The “Guided Principles” materials recommend “At the beginning of the year, set up portfolios for all the students in your class.” The materials recommend these contain graded work and work samples from students to document growth over the year. Materials also recommend teachers add to the portfolio notes from guided reading groups, individual conferences, small group instruction, independent reading, and independent writing. Example of instructions in the resource: “One option is keeping a clipboard handy to take notes throughout the day. Another option is using a file folder with sticky notes to record observations for each student.”

The materials provide a formal diagnostic assessment at the beginning, middle, and end of the year. The diagnostic tool “HMH Growth Measure Lectura en Español” is an online, research-based student assessment that takes approximately 45 minutes for students to complete. It is used to understand the level students are performing and to group students based on skill levels. Materials provide reports that include the reading Lexile level, proficiency level, and growth from previous assessments. 

Instructional materials provide guidance to support teachers in understanding the types of assessments included. The “administración y calificación” section of the teacher’s edition is designed to support the teacher in understanding the purpose of the assessments. Materials provide an overview of the assessments and suggested time frames to administer them. The resource titled “Assessment and Differentiation” includes a suggested timeline to administer tests throughout the school year. The materials include support for teachers with information on daily assessments, intervention assessments, and guided reading assessments. For example, materials guide teachers with “Daily Formative Assessment: Use embedded opportunities for daily formative assessment along with Selection Quizzes. Then support or extend learning during small-group instruction. •Vocabulary •Reading Workshop •Foundational Skills •Writing Workshop.” Materials include rubrics to measure writing skills. The resource is available for all three grade levels. The resource “Assessment and Differentiation” includes a section titled “Assessing Writing and Projects,” where information is available about the criteria used to assess the students’ writing. For example, materials provide writing rubrics for opinion, narrative, informational text, and research writing. Each rubric consists of three areas: Organization and Presentation, Development of Ideas, and Use of Language and Conventions. In addition, a visual is provided to demonstrate how to use the rubrics. A four-step process is shared to score the students’ writing. Example of the instructions: “1. Print the rubric from Ed: Your Friend in Learning or copy the rubric from the Writing Workshop Teacher’s Guide. Use a copy to score each student’s work.”

Instructional materials provide guidance to support teachers in the administration of assessments. There are general guidelines to administer evaluations, such as “evaluations must be independent since responses are oral.” Teachers receive information regarding evaluation, such as not continuing if the student is distressed or grade the assessment after the student has left. The “administración y calificación” teacher’s edition section is designed to support the teacher in understanding the types of assessments and when to administer them. For example, the “Evaluaciones para verificar el progreso: Grados 2 a 6” guides teachers to administer independent oral fluency evaluations to every student every two weeks that will last between 3-5 minutes. Instructions require teachers to have a clock with seconds handy to tally the words per second for fluency. Teachers annotate in their “formulario de la prueba para el maestro” student responses and grades. The fluency story is retold by students and they receive a grade based on the following: “0- Vuelve a contar sin enfoque, sin detalles o necesita que lo ayuden para hacerlo, Si el estudiante no puede responder o no respondió. 1- Puede que incluya la idea o problema principal, casi todos los sucesos importantes, algunos detalles. Vuelve a contar de forma organizada en secuencia por lo general, puede que contenga información errónea,” and the recommended score “3- Incluye la idea o problema principal, los sucesos o información importantes, detalles de apoyo. Vuelve a contar de forma organizada en secuencia y es coherente.” There is a chart to interpret results from the fluency assessment to evaluate the students’ success in correct words per minute. The chart includes the guidelines of where students should be per grade level at the start, middle, and end of the year. 

The resource “Assessment and Differentiation” includes a section titled “Documenting Student’s Growth,” which provides suggestions for teachers to track students’ growth. Materials recommend portfolios for each student. Student’s portfolios include data from “Screening, Diagnostic, and Progress Monitoring Assessments, Weekly Assessments and Module Assessments, Writing Conferences, Writing and Project Rubrics, and Observation Notes.” Students track their own progress and growth in assessments and assignments using the scores tab on the “miLibro.” Students click the scores tab to see all the assessments taken, date submitted, due date, score, total items, and actions required. The assignments tab includes all assignments given by the teacher and the due date. Students click start, continue, or submit the assignment. Materials also provide a reading log for students to keep track of the books read during independent reading. Students annotate time spent reading and answer comprehension questions about the text. Materials guide teachers to encourage students to set reading goals for how much time they will spend reading every day: “As students head into independent reading time, have them set goals based on their reading history and how they’re feeling in that moment.” The materials give ideas to encourage students to keep track of reading: “Have students create a response journal in which they can document their responses to their independent reading books. Encourage students to note what they liked, what they didn’t like, and why.” In addition, the materials provide suggestions for teachers to share reading surveys with families to gather information about the students’ interests and use the information to support students with independent reading. Students use reading logs to monitor reading frequency and record learning.

Evaluation for 5.2
Materials include guidance for teachers and administrators to analyze and respond to data from diagnostic tools.

Materials include guidance for teachers and administrators to analyze and respond to data from diagnostic tools, including individual students’ needs and student progress appropriate to their developmental level. Diagnostic tools yield meaningful information for teachers to use when planning instruction and differentiation and leverage different activities to respond to student data. Materials provide guidance for administrators to support teachers in analyzing and responding to data.

Evidence includes but is not limited to:

Instructional materials provide guidance to respond to individual students’ needs in literacy skills. Grades 3–5 have a resource titled “Assessment and Differentiation,” which includes a section titled “Screening, Diagnostic, and Progress-Monitoring Assessments” that provides teachers with information to understand the different diagnostic tools available to support individualized instruction. For example, an oral fluency assessment is available for teachers to assess a student’s oral reading skills. The assessment focuses on “fluency, accuracy, and rate as well as provide important information about the student’s decoding strategies by using specific grade-level targeted vocabulary.” The resource shares the following information: “Based on the results and other observations, determine whether students would benefit from intervention instruction or require additional diagnostic testing.”

Materials support teachers with guidance and direction to respond to individual students’ needs in all domains to scaffold instruction and activities. The “Recomendaciones para la enseñanza basada en los datos” guides teachers to tailor instruction by using professional judgement, informal classroom observations, along with the diagnostic assessment, “tenga en cuenta su propio juicio profesional, las observaciones realizadas en clase y los resultados de otras evaluaciones.” The recommendation for teachers is to identify student needs using specific diagnostic data to identify key skills. Focus teaching on those needs, and provide intensive teaching based on the results from the evaluation. The guide also tells teachers to teach the main content with scaffolding and supports “apoyo escalonado” that includes “Cuaderno de la respuesta de lectura” where students read and respond to a reading selection targeting the skill they need help in through the module. Teachers work collaboratively with other teachers if students are not able to make progress or need to receive the initial evaluation or another assessment tool according to student learning preferences. There is guidance to consult with specialists in the districts as needed once all steps have been followed to intervene.

Reports for online assessments have a grouping option that allows the teacher to group the students based on the assessment results for comprehension skills. The materials automatically group students based on results and place an equal number of students in each group. Teachers can manually group students based on data from formal and informal assessments. Once the students are grouped by skills, teachers assign the lessons or look up specific lessons for a given skill to adjust instruction to meet the students’ needs.

Growth Measure reports include scores about each student's achievement. Materials provide a comprehensive view of students’ needs for teachers to use when planning instruction and differentiation. The report includes a Scaled Score, Performance Level, Grade-Level Equivalency, and current Lexile® interval. Once a student has taken the assessment during two test windows in the school year, the report shows the Student Growth Index (SGI) on the Growth Report. The scores on the Student Growth Report inform teacher instructional next steps for each student, “Enfoque Su Enseñanza En Esas Necesidades: Brinde enseñanza intensiva con base en los resultados de las evaluaciones, utilizando el Taller de destrezas fundamentales y estudio de palabras.” In addition, the teacher obtains the reports by standards both at the class and student level and the class-level growth reports to identify whether a certain skill needs to be retaught to some specific students or the whole class. The teacher finds the resources, interventions, and small group reading to match student needs in these assessments.

Materials provide teacher guidance on selecting from a variety of activities in a way that responds to student data. For example, in “Recomendaciones para la enseñanza basada en los datos,” materials suggest that if the initial fluency assessment score is below level “por debajo del objetivo,” teachers administer the initial fluency assessment that corresponds to the previous grade. If students score below level on that assessment, follow the recommendations provided by the materials for that grade level. If the student scores above level in that assessment, teachers conduct the lessons of “Taller de destrezas fundamentales: fluidez de la lectura oral” with students while scaffolding the teaching of the current content. Teachers identify other skills students need additional help and utilize “Taller de Destrezas Fundamentales,” a separate supplemental that contain four sections: “Fluidez, Conciencia Fonológica, Fonética y decodificación, and Vocabulario.” Each supplemental contains additional lessons teachers use to work with students who need additional support in any of the skills. The digital platform provides the video “Differentiating for comprehension in Into Reading” to differentiate the lessons once the student groups have been organized. For example, materials guide teachers to “Use Tabletop Reading Minilessons to reinforce and extend comprehension skills introduced during Shared Reading, such as Central Idea or Make and Confirm Predictions.”

Materials provide a variety of resources and teacher guidance to differentiate student learning and provide different activities throughout the modules, although not in response to formal assessments. Teachers implement the module skills through Tier I instruction with a variety of instructional methods and student practice such as guided, independent, collaborative, whole group. Materials state, “Por medio del aprendizaje diario con toda la clase y en grupos pequeños, los estudiantes desarrollan sus conocimientos sobre el tema, así como el vocabulario académico y las destrezas de lectura, comunicación y escritura.” The materials guide teachers on how to introduce the skill, which instructional approach to use, and in what order. The materials in the unit include guidance on additional small group activities in the Reading and Writing Workshops, where teachers select skills students are struggling with or need extension. They also select activities in these workshops where they can reinforce literacy skills as needed. Materials do not provide guidance on connecting assessment data to differentiation.

Instructional materials include resources to guide administrators in supporting teachers in developing instruction to respond to data. Materials include a variety of online resources for professional learning. The online resource titled “Into Reading: Small Groups at Grades 3–5” is an article intended to coach classroom teachers on using data to form small groups and ongoing analysis to have dynamic groups. Information found in the online resource. Guidance states, “Your groups should remain flexible and fluid. This means that when you are not conducting guided reading, your groupings will change day-to-day and week-to-week depending on students’ specific needs at the time.” In addition, the online resource includes a section titled “Identifying the right resource” that provides recommendations to develop action plans to support student learning. The purpose of the section is to reference the resources available for the students’ needs. However, the online resource does not provide instructions on how the teacher can determine what activity is adequate for the students’ needs. Materials include suggestions for teachers to assign research assignments for students who are ready to enrich their learning. Materials include anchor charts and graphic organizers to reinforce comprehension skills. Materials provide short, less complex text for students who need intervention. For instance, Enrichment activities can be found on the resource “Take and Teach Lesson,” reteaching resources include “Tabletop Minilessons: Reading” and “Grammar Lessons,” and intervention resources are “Read and Respond Journal” and “Foundational Skills and Word Study Studio.” Although materials include online resources for teachers and administrators, no evidence was found on guidance for administrators in supporting data analysis.

Evaluation for 5.3
Materials include frequent, embedded opportunities for monitoring progress.

Materials include frequent, integrated formative assessment opportunities. Materials include routine and systematic progress monitoring opportunities that accurately measure and track student progress and are appropriate for the age and content skill.

Evidence includes but is not limited to:

Instructional materials include systematic progress monitoring opportunities that measure and track student progress. Materials provide suggested checkpoints to gather information. The diagnostic tool “HMH Growth Measure Lectura en Español” provides a window of dates for the beginning of the year, middle of the year, and end of the year. For example, the dates for the end of the year are from March 6 to June 30. 

The materials include routine and systematic progress monitoring opportunities that accurately measure and track student progress. The opportunities are as follows: “Evaluación de la semana, Evaluación de lectura guiada, Evaluación del módulo, Evaluación en línea, Evaluaciones preliminar, diagnóstica y para verificar el progreso, Lecturas por niveles: Pruebas cortas, Lecturas por niveles: Pruebas cortas de comprensión, Preparación para la evaluación de Texas, and Pruebas cortas de las lecturas” along with a guide for teachers to conduct the evaluations. These multiple forms of assessments track individual students’ progress so teachers guide their instruction. The “Evaluación de la semana” is a weekly learning evaluation based on the content presented in the module. The skills learned weekly are evaluated, such as reading and vocabulary, and grammar for writing. The “evaluaciones de lectura guiada” are 10 question assessments that evaluate students’ comprehension. The “evaluacion del modulo” tests students’ understanding of Reading, Writing, and Foundational Skills from the module. The “evaluacion en linea” offers a short quiz for the readings in the module to assess students’ understanding of the selection presented. The other assessments listed above: “Evaluaciones preliminar, diagnóstica y para verificar el progreso, Lecturas por niveles: Prueba” offer additional forms of evaluation for teachers to check student understanding and progress.

Materials include formative assessments embedded in “Vistazo a la semana” as a weekly assessment of each module. For example, Lesson 1 from Week 1 focuses on reading skills and strategies and foundational skills. Teachers are guided, “Use each lesson’s Independent Practice and Engage and Respond tasks to determine whether students are meeting the learning objectives.”

The materials provide fluency assessments, weekly reading comprehension assessments for every module, and writing assessments. In the “Guiding Principles” document, the materials show a suggested timeline that specifies when students take each assessment. For example, students complete the weekly assessments during weeks 5, 10, and 14 of each module, whereas the module assessment is taken on week 15. The materials recommend that fluency assessments be administered every two weeks to monitor student progress in reading fluency. Another example of tracking progress is through the implementation of rubrics provided by the materials. There are rubrics to assess student writing during the “Writer's Workshop,” as well as student performance in the research projects that students develop every module.

The materials provide formal and informal assessments to monitor student performance. The formal assessments provided include fluency every two weeks; reading comprehension every week and every module; writing every week and every module; diagnostic and growth three times a year. However, except for the diagnostic/growth assessments, the other evaluations are meant to be completed in less than a lesson’s duration, which makes them appropriate for the age and skill development. For example, the weekly assessments contain five multiple-choice questions about a short reading passage and five multiple-choice questions related to revising and editing a text to assess writing skills. The fluency assessments measure how many words per minute a student can read, so it only takes one minute per student. Materials suggest conducting formative assessments daily to monitor student progress. Teachers collect this data through observation/anecdotal logs, student portfolios, implementation of rubrics, keeping a reading log, or student completion of a graphic organizer to demonstrate understanding.

Materials include recommendations for progress monitoring. The resource “Assessment and Differentiation” includes a section “Guías para la administración y calificación,” which suggests teachers administer oral assessments every two weeks. The resource recommends a time of “three to five minutes” to identify the challenging areas for “reteaching, review, and extra practice.” The data guides intervention groups and strategies. Students are assessed for comprehension and fluency rate. Teachers provide students with a passage to read from “Hojas reproducibles para dar estas pruebas según el nivel del grado.” Teachers record the words correct per minute (WCPM). Teachers use a rubric to evaluate: “Incluye la idea o problema principal, los sucesos o información importantes, detalles de apoyo, Vuelve a contar de forma organizada en secuencia y es coherente= 2. Puede que incluya la idea o problema principal, casi todos los sucesos importantes, algunos detalles, Vuelve a contar de forma organizada en secuencia por lo general, puede que contenga información errónea= 1. Vuelve a contar sin enfoque, sin detalles o necesita que lo ayuden para hacerlo. Si el estudiante no puede responder o no respondió= 0.” Materials also provide teachers with a table with information for grades 3 to 5 on fluency rates. The table includes an estimate of words per minute students should be at during the beginning of the year, middle of the year, and end of the year. For example, third grade has 60-75 words per minute for the beginning of the year, 72-86 for the middle of the year, and 85-99 for the end of the year. 

Evaluation for 6.1
Materials include guidance, scaffolds, supports, and extensions that maximize student learning potential.

The materials include guidance, scaffolds, supports, and extensions that maximize student learning potential. Activities guide students who have not yet mastered the content as well as those who have achieved grade-level mastery. In addition, the instructional materials provide enrichment opportunities for all levels of learners. 

Evidence includes but is not limited to:

The targeted instruction begins with the teacher’s use of Intervention Assessments to place students in appropriate phonics lessons based on their needs and performance. The Teacher’s Guide provides explicit instruction with modeling and systematic instruction with scaffolding. Teachers provide frequent opportunities for student practice in phonics with constructive feedback. Teachers receive guidance on Explicit Instruction with Modeling, Systematic Instruction with Scaffolding, Frequent Opportunities for Responding and Practicing, Immediate Corrective and Affirmative Feedback, and Ongoing Progress Monitoring as an intervention for every unit and module. 

In Module 1, lessons guide the teachers to work independently and/or in collaborative groups for students who have mastered the content. The Reading Center suggests students expand their opinion by writing a review of their book to help students make a selection. For example, students collaborate to generate ideas, investigate, complete, and present a project based on their investigation. The instructional materials list the objectives, such as “Participar en proyectos de investigación compartidos, reunir información y evidencia de fuentes, y trabajar en colaboración con otros para desarrollar un plan de responsabilidades compartidas.” Students engage in collaborative groups to investigate and write a biography about a person who has overcome obstacles. 

The materials provide additional linguistic support for students who have not yet mastered the content. In Module 2, sentence starters serve as examples for additional support, such as “pide a los estudiantes que completen la siguiente oración: El invento de mi grupo ayudará a quienes padezcan.” Materials provide small group instruction with activities to reinforce skills such as decoding words. Students work together and support each other in their research projects. Module 6 guides teachers to reinforce recently taught lessons in “Reforzar: Características del texto y elementos gráficos.”

The materials suggest additional activities for all levels of learners. The section titled “Leer atentamente” develops comprehension by guiding students to read a complete text and consider the genre to establish the author's purpose. The section titled “Escribir sobre la lectura” develops the ability for the students to cite evidence when answering text questions or other selections. Students explore and engage in additional literacy activities.

Module 7 recommends targeted instruction and activities for students who have mastered the content. Teachers complete page 150 from the “Aprende y demuestra.” Students write context clues about each word used in their sentences. The teacher asks students to share the sentences and identify the context clues in each sentence. In Module 10, lessons prompt teachers to help students make statements about text features and graphic elements. The activity titled “Enseñar gradualmente y ampliar” asks students to generate ideas using the characteristics and graphic elements to obtain information. Module 10 also offers an extended linguistic activity to support language learners: “Extension Linguistica.” Some modules offer a research project, “Proyecto de Investigación,” where students delve deeper into their own learning. 

All targeted instruction and activities engage students who have mastered the content. Several modules, such as Module 11, offer “Clubes de Lectura” to allow on-level students to work on a book of choice, collaborate with other students, and share ideas. This module also offers independent work related to the lesson’s instructions. The section called: “Opciones del Trabajo Independiente y colaborativo” is a support for those students that are on-level and allows them to practice and go deeper in their own learning. Additionally, Module 12 includes recommendations to build on students’ responses.

Evaluation for 6.2
Materials provide a variety of instructional methods that appeal to a variety of learning interests and needs.

Materials include a variety of instructional approaches to engage students in mastery of the content. Materials support developmentally appropriate multimodal instructional strategies, flexible grouping, multiple types of practices, and provide guidance and structures to achieve effective implementation.

Evidence includes but is not limited to:

Instructional materials provide a variety of different approaches to engage students in mastery of the content. In each module, the Teacher's Guide provides a map of knowledge to develop understanding of the content each module offers. In Module 1, the map of knowledge provides an opportunity for students to write about how their experiences shape them and how the information connects to their lives. Before reading text, students work with an informative writing section where they read an essay, respond to questions, and write their own. Teachers provide students with essential vocabulary words and place them on their interactive word wall to use throughout the reading.

Instructional materials include lessons for flexible grouping. In Module 3, a section titled “Centros de lectoescritura” includes activities students participate in in small group instructions. The section titled “Centro de vocabulario” contains instructions of what the students complete for that center. For example, students use the list of six super words related to the main idea of the text. Students list the words by importance or interest or use the words to create sentences. 

Throughout the text, teachers have access to explicit instruction on how to conduct “Reading Workshops,” where students complete various activities daily in whole groups, small groups, and independent settings during reading. Instructional materials include whole group instruction. 

Materials include activities to engage students in collaborative groups. In Module 4, an illustration titled “Taller de lectura” includes an explanation of how each section can be implemented in the classroom. The section “Lectura guiada” prompts the teacher to work with “estudiantes en su nivel de lectura guiada. Con las Lecturas por niveles de Rigby, use solo libros adecuados para facilitar las lecciones de lectura guiada.” The activities provide opportunities for students to interact in indirect learning through collaborative learning. Every module presents projects for students to interact with peers and collaborate to generate ideas and investigate.

There are various options for personalized learning and adapting to each individual student's needs when working with each student specifically. Students have individual writing conferences with teachers to edit and revise their writing after constructive feedback. For example, Module 6 highlights the specific approaches to differentiation and teaching the texts by active visualization, active listening, vocabulary, writing about the text, and even additional routines to establish reading motivation.

In Module 9, a section titled “Proyecto de investigación” prompts the teacher to facilitate a project assignment. Students research a topic and use “Tablero de ideas” to generate ideas in small groups. Instructional materials encourage participation through questioning and collaboration.

In Module 11, the section “Precisión y autocorrección,” the teacher explains the importance of fluency while reading new texts. The Teacher's Guide provides teachers guidance on pronouncing and defining vocabulary in English, such as the Beatles.

Evaluation for 6.3
Materials include supports for English Learners (ELs) to meet grade-level learning expectations.

The materials do not include supports for English Learners to meet grade-level learning expectations. The materials do not provide accommodations for English Language learners with various levels of English language proficiency. The materials do not encourage strategic use of students’ primary language as a means to develop linguistic, affective, cognitive, and academic skills in the target language (e.g., to enhance vocabulary development).

Evidence includes but is not limited to:

Instructional materials state that English and Spanish explicit connections are beneficial for all students despite their first language. These connections facilitate the development of Language 1 and Language 2. The Teacher's Guide has an explanation of “Dual language settings” within each module. The dual-language settings and the interlinguistic bridge provided in each module showcase how to go about implementing specific scaffolds for ELLs with systematic and clear connections between languages. However, instructional materials for all grade levels do not include lessons that use students’ first language to develop skills in English. Instructional materials do not include linguistics accommodations for English learners. No evidence was found for teachers to support students at different English language proficiency levels.

Evaluation for 7.1
Materials include year-long plans with practice and review opportunities that support instruction.

Materials include year-long plans with practice and review opportunities that support instruction, build students’ concept development, and consider how to vertically align and practice foundational skills throughout the span of a year.

Evidence includes but is not limited to:

Instructional materials include instruction in foundational literacy skills that span through the course of the year. The Teacher's Guide includes a scope and sequence document for each module called “Desarrollar los conocimientos y las destrezas.” This document outlines the genre studies within all units and the concepts the students learn each week. For example, in Module 1, students learn about points of view through “Texto informativo.” Students receive additional instruction in point of view in Module 3 with “Ficción histórica,” in Module 4 while reading “Cuentos de hadas y mitos,” in Module with “Texto informativo,” Module 7 and 8 as well as Module 9 with “Texto informativo/argumentativo.” The materials provide spiraled review of various standards in this manner.

Materials include modules that align instruction to separate themes. Each module has a duration of three weeks and includes lessons that focus on grades 3–5. Materials incorporate opportunities for teachers to identify lessons for review and practice.  The resource titled “¡Arriba la Lectura! Tabla de correspondencia” offers an overview of the content included in each module and lesson number.  In Module 1, the lesson for “Decodificar: Acento ortográfico: palabras agudas, palabras graves, Combinaciones con r” includes instructions for the activities in the Teacher's Guide. The Teacher's Guide offers activities for teachers to model and guide decoding lessons, “Muestre y lea en voz alta las palabras agudas jardín, atrás y pregunté aplaudiendo otra vez en la última sílaba. Subraye la última sílaba. Explique que las palabras agudas llevan una tilde, o acento ortográfico, cuando terminan en vocal o en las consonantes n y s.”  

Materials include a yearlong instruction sequence to build students’ concept development while being vertically aligned. The “Sequencia de Instruccion” resource for teachers outlines the instruction plan with the sections: “Taller de Lectura,” “Vocabulario,” “Destrezas Fundamentales,” “Taller de Escritura,” and “Dual Language Settings” in each module. Each module also has a “Pregunta Esencial” to guide the learning of the unit. For example, in Module 1, the Pregunta Esencial is “¿De qué manera tus experiencias forman tu identidad?” The Vocabulario is desafío, profundo, presionó.   The unit explores the theme in depth to answer the Pregunta Esencial through instructional settings such as whole group, guided practice, independent, collaborative, and embedded checks for understanding and practice opportunities. The structure is the same for each module and for grades 3, 4, and 5. 

Instructional materials include opportunities for students to review and practice foundational literacy skills. Lessons provide activities for students to review previously taught skills for additional practice. In Module 2, the Teacher's Guide includes a section, “Reforzar la destreza,” where instructions offer suggestions for teachers to reinforce closed syllables with letters m and n. Teachers ask students to classify words “en tres pilas de acuerdo con la sílaba cerrada que tengan, y si esta requiere o no de acentuación.” Students write the words on the board and sort them into three piles: closed syllable with m, closed syllable with n, and if it includes an accent. Materials include guidance for teachers to review and practice foundational literacy skills with students. In Module 3, the Teacher's Guide includes lessons for repeated opportunities to learn and practice using foundational literacy skills. Teachers display the words aquí, culebra, and koala and guide students to divide the words into syllables: “Muestre las palabras aquí, culebra y koala. Guíe a los estudiantes para que las dividan en sílabas y las lean en voz alta, prestando atención a que letra produce el sonido /k/.” Students read words aloud and identify the syllables with the /k/ sound. 

Materials include ample opportunities to learn foundational literacy skills throughout the year. For example, in Module 3, teachers introduce Latin roots, “raices del latin aud, vis y spe,” in Module 6, the Greek root is, “Raíces del griego auto, bio, foto, grafía.” In Module 8, the focus is Latin roots, “Raíces del latín port, dict.” Each module includes a script for teachers to use, such as, “Nuestro Vocabulario crítico contiene una palabra con la raíz del latín port (transportan). Port es una raíz que significa “llevar.” Materials also provide a resource, “Mostrar y motivar: Vocabulario generativo 8.4,” a word web with the root in the center. Students add words to the center with the same root as additional practice.

Materials include lessons connected within each unit and build upon prior knowledge. The resource “Recursos” includes a section, “Correlaciones,” where the fourth-grade TEKS are listed for teachers to use in classroom instruction. The resource correlates the TEKS with page numbers of materials available for teachers and students. Example of the instructions found in the resource are as follow: “Esta correlación muestra dónde se enseñan los conocimientos y destrezas esenciales de Texas en los materiales del estudiante y del maestro para el Grado 4.”

The content plan is designed to build upon students’ current level of understanding with clear connections within and between lessons. The connections between the different modules are outlined in the scope and sequence for each grade level. Teachers see all modules when skill is taught throughout the school year. The connections between lessons within a module occur in all the reading passages and the projects related to the theme. For example, in Module 6, “Las Maravillas de la Naturaleza” contains nonfiction passages about natural wonders, like “El Gran Cañón: Un Sendero a través del Tiempo” or “Rocas Extrañas y Extraordinarias.” Within the module, students develop a research project about an extreme environment, and the vocabulary learned is all related to science.

Materials provide review and practice of foundational literacy skills throughout the materials. Fluency and decoding are skills taught every week. For example, in Module 7, the Decoding lesson is about words with the suffixes -oso, -osa, -ado, -ada, -ción, and -miento, and the lesson on fluency includes a passage that contains words with such suffixes. The materials also include a separate component for fluency with lessons devoted to working with students who need additional support in small groups. 

Evaluation for 7.2
Materials include implementation support for teachers and administrators.

Materials include implementation support for teachers and administrators. Materials are accompanied by a TEKS-aligned scope and sequence outlining how knowledge and skills build and connect across grade levels. Materials include supports to help teachers and guidance for administrators to implement the materials as intended. Materials include a school year’s worth of instruction, including realistic pacing guidance and routines. 

Evidence includes but is not limited to:

Instructional materials include a scope and sequence outlined to the fourth grade SLAR TEKS. Materials include a scope and sequence for grammar “Taller de Escritura” and another reading program, “Arriba la lectura.” The resource “Gramática: Secuencia de instrucción” includes an overview of the grammar skills. The resource provides information for teachers to support students at different levels of knowledge, a brief summary, and links for quick access to instructional materials. In addition, the resource clearly states that the fourth lesson of each week is to review skills. The materials state, “Como verá en la Secuencia de instrucción, la cuarta lección de cada semana es un repaso de un tema que los estudiantes ya estudiaron durante el año escolar en curso o en un grado anterior.” 

Materials include guidance for teachers to understand the progression of literacy skills across a grade level.  The resource titled “Secuencia de instrucción” includes information about the skills review in each lesson.  For instance, Module 1, includes the list of spelling words assigned for the first week and the decoding lesson. As the year progresses, each module contains variety of decoding skills and spelling words such as “Decodificar Sílabas abiertas y sílabas cerradas (CV- CVC) Ortografía Palabras con sílabas abiertas y cerradas Palabras básicas: mundo, noche, nadie, semana, soñaba, coloridas, activo, acceso, verdad, novedad, trompetista, amatista, envasado, isla, madera, neblina, altura, trabajo, consolarlo, coliflor.”

Instructional materials include supports to help teachers understand how to implement the instruction as intended. Materials provide guidance to support teachers in preparing instruction. The resource titled “Rutinas de enseñanza” provides an overview of instructional routines embedded in the lessons found in the Teacher Guide. The section titled “Usa tus palabras” includes information on how to use the vocabulary routine reference in each module. For example, the routine lists three steps for teachers to implement in class. The three steps are described: “Teacher says the word and asks students to repeat the word; Teacher explains the word; Teacher provides examples using the visuals and/or sentence provided in the vocabulary card.”

The “Sequencia de instrucción” outlines the concepts taught weekly and their corresponding TEKS. The concepts and skills address the following areas: taller de lectura, vocabulario, taller de destrezas, taller de escritura, y dual language settings. The Teacher’s Guide also includes the ability to search resources by standard. Teachers use the “resources” tab under each module to locate everything that is included in the module and click on the arrow below each activity to see what TEKS is addressed. Teachers see the TEKS aligned scope and sequence from all grades to not only ensure vertical alignment but to build foundational knowledge from previous TEKS as needed. The “sequencia de instrucción” provides teachers with an overview of each module. 

The scope and sequence shows clear alignment to the appropriate grade-level SLAR TEKS and outlines the sequence of instruction towards the end of the year. Although the scope and sequence chart itself does not show the alignment between grade levels, there is a function in the digital platform that does. Under the tab “standards,” the teacher sees all the SLAR standards. It shows in what grade level they were covered, and teachers have the ability to click on the corresponding resources from there.

The Guiding Principles and Strategies (GPS) book included in the materials provide guidance to help administrators support teachers in implementing the materials as needed. Administrators receive a background on lesson expectations as they support teacher development in the classroom. The table of content highlights the following concepts: Welcome into Reading, Classroom Community, Family and Community, Assessments and Differentiation, and Viva el Español. Administrators easily navigate the ebook to find a variety of supports. There is a dual-language implementation guide and professional development videos that offer teaching models of different aspects of dual language that teachers apply in their own classroom. For example, administrators find differentiation opportunities included in the book and guide teachers to a specific approach for an area of development in student needs. The book also outlines what a day of classroom instruction looks like timewise. The lesson delivery targets students' diverse needs using whole-class instruction, teacher-led small groups, and options for building independence and its time frame for each section.  It also includes the “whole wrap up and share” section where teachers close the lesson the last 5 minutes of class. 

Materials include lessons and activities for a full year of classroom instruction as outlined in the scope and sequence included. The lessons can be reasonably implemented throughout the year if the pacing is followed. The materials are divided into 12 modules, and each module is to last three weeks, which amounts to 36 weeks of instruction. Each week has five daily lessons. The Teacher’s Guide includes in every lesson the symbol of a clock indicating the duration of each lesson. Also, in the Guiding Principles supplement, the materials suggest specific amounts of time for each lesson: For Building Knowledge and Vocabulary 10–15 minutes a day; for Reading Workshop 20–30 minutes a day; for Foundational Skills and Communication 15–30 minutes a day; and for Writing Workshop 30 –45 minutes a day. If these recommendations are followed, the minimum amount of time a daily lesson should last would be 1:15 hours and the maximum 2 hours, which makes it realistic and feasible.

Materials are organized in a way that makes sense for ease of implementation. For example, materials are color-coded to make it easy to identify specific sections. All guidance and lessons devoted to small group teaching are identified with yellow. All guidance and lessons aimed at Dual Language Learners are identified with dark blue. Materials provide cards that are easily identifiable and durable to allow for use year after year. For example, vocabulary cards have one color, “Motivar y Aprender” cards have a different color.

Evaluation for 7.3
Materials provide implementation guidance to meet variability in programmatic design and scheduling considerations.

Materials provide implementation guidance to meet variability in programmatic design and scheduling considerations. Materials provide guidance for strategic implementation without disrupting the sequence of content and the ability to incorporate the curriculum into district, campus, and teacher programmatic design and scheduling considerations.

Evidence includes but is not limited to:

The material is organized into 12 modules for the year, where students build knowledge as they read, write, view, and discuss each topic. Materials include a “flexible, balanced approach with a focus on small-group instruction to develop collaborative, self-directed learners” and “Planning, grouping, and assessment tools that allow teachers to focus on delivering individualized instruction.” These tools allow instruction to be scaffolded to meet individual student needs in each module. There are several options for independent and collaborative work in literacy centers: “Centro de lectura,” “Centro de vocabulario,” “Estacion digital,” “Centro de escritura” and “Centro de Proyecto” (differentiation). 

There is a suggested timeline in the Teacher’s Guide that supports planning instruction and provides checks for understanding throughout the school year. The timeline breaks down the concepts taught by weeks so that teachers can plan for students with gaps in learning. Teachers use the small grouping and intervention resources to fill gaps so that students can be successful in the whole group lesson. Teachers follow the suggested timeline to plan instruction and administer assessments throughout the course of the school year. Teachers build knowledge and language throughout the units by following the embedded digital timeline in the teacher's guide that ensures the content is taught and is consistent with the developmental progression of literacy skills.

Materials contain a program design on instructional approaches and timeframes for each section. Whole class instruction is divided in the following categories: “Desarrollar los conocimientos y el lenguaje y vocabulario” (10–15 min), “Taller de lectura” (20–30 min), “Destrezas fundamentales” (15–30 min), “Taller de escritura” (30–45 min), and “Comunicación” (5 min) daily. This can be adjusted to align with district curriculum or with different teachers and schedules. Administrators view the timeframe of a daily lesson. The schedule supports teachers to be able to meet with different groups of students as needed. The time frame can be used as a guide when writing district curriculum to follow the same framework.

Materials include strategic guidance on implementation that ensures the sequence of content taught is consistent with the developmental progression of literacy skills. This developmental progression of literacy skills is displayed in the Phonics and Decoding supplement as well as the Fluency supplemental materials. Teachers use the supplemental material to support students in need of intervention. The supplementals are separated from the main materials. Teachers follow this sequence regardless of what module of the main materials they are studying.

Instructional materials include guidance about the order in which literacy skills are taught. Materials support teachers in providing the progression of content skills to meet the students’ needs. The resource titled “Secuencia de instruccion” includes a weekly glance at decoding lessons, fluency, and spelling words. For example, in Module 1, the decoding skills are “Palabras agudas, Palabras Graves, Combinaciones con r” and fluency focus on autocorrection, rhythm, and expression. The spelling words correlate with the decoding lessons. For example, the first lesson introduces “Acento ortográfico: palabras agudas,” and the spelling words include words with an accent. Example of the spelling words found in the resource: “exclamó, jardín, jamás, entrará, pregunté, reflexión, miró, tirón, también, atrás, azadón, hablé, llegó, bambú, caribú, francés, atención, carmesí, acumulación, administración.” The resource titled “Minilecciones de gramática” provides an overview of the grammar skills taught and how to implement them. The instructions suggest three ways to implement the resource: Integrate with the revising and editing lessons, differentiated instruction, and systematic according to the scope and sequence. Example of the instructions: “Personalice sus lecciones de gramática en base a las necesidades del salón de clases.”

Evaluation for 7.4
Materials provide guidance on fostering connections between home and school.

Materials provide guidance on fostering connections between home and school. Materials support development of strong relationships between teachers and families and provide specific activities for use at home to support students’ learning and development.

Evidence Includes but is not limited to:

Instructional materials include activities to support development of strong relationships between teachers and families. Within the “Teacher Resources,” the section “Family and Community” provides teachers with different ideas to include families in the academic success of their child. The first section is “Involucrar a las familias en el aprendizaje.” In this section, the materials provide suggestions for teachers on developing relationships with the parents that support their children’s learning. Some of these suggestions are: “Ofrezca apoyo para ayudar a las familias a que comenten el tema y las Palabras de la idea esencial de este módulo. Anime a los estudiantes para que lean en la casa con sus familias y dé ideas para que toda la familia converse sobre los libros. Sugiera actividades de vocabulario para apoyar la lectoescritura.”

The materials also include suggestions for teachers to engage families in the child’s literacy skills. The resource provides ways for teachers to encourage families to support oral language skills at home. For example, they can play word games, tell stories, and discuss books. Teachers also encourage families to have daily conversations after school, while at the grocery store, and during shared meals. In Module 1, the Teacher’s Guide includes printable pages to share with families and guides teachers to “Ofrezca apoyo para ayudar a las familias a que comenten el tema y las palabras de la idea esencial de este módulo.” Teachers encourage students to read to their family members and suggest ideas to build vocabulary. 

Materials provide recommendations to encourage the development of strong relationships between teachers and families. Materials include activities for parents to do at home with students. In Module 2, a printable page is available to suggest activities to practice comprehension and vocabulary at home. Some examples of activities parents can do at home are to discuss the definitions of vocabulary words, search for similar words, and sentence stems to reinforce the words used in the module. Example of instructions: “Refuerce las palabras del tema: percepción, aroma, distinguir y táctil en todas las conversaciones con su hijo.”

Instructional materials include activities to support students’ learning and development. Resources are available for students to practice skills at home. Materials offer resources in print and online formats. For example, the materials provide a printable page of fluency passages for students to practice fluency at home and dictation sentence pages to practice the spelling words each week. Online resources include videos, articles, and blog entries that provide parents with suggestions about different topics related to their child’s education. The website for parents is the same regardless of the grade level of their child since it contains general information. Specific resources are accessed through their child’s account. There is no evidence that parents can have their own access to the digital platform outside of the child’s account. 

To connect with parents, the materials provide a “Carta para la familia,” which outlines topics for the module and suggests parents ask questions after reading that relate to the material. For example, Module 9 highlights the theme of protecting the environment. The letter informs the parents that their child will be learning about protecting the planet with a focus on persuasive text. It also states they will learn about what people can do to help the environment. The letter also offers parents suggestions to practice vocabulary at home (i.e., ecológica, reciclar, conservación, y santuario). The materials guide parents to look for words with suffixes “-able, -ible, -oso, -osa, -ada, -nte, -nia” in books, magazines, online texts, and billboards. Letters are in Spanish. However, no link is available for other languages.

Evaluation for 7.5
The visual design of student and teacher materials (whether in print or digital) is neither distracting nor chaotic.

The visual design of student and teacher materials is neither distracting nor chaotic. Materials include appropriate use of white space and design that supports and does not distract from student learning. Pictures and graphics are supportive of student learning and engagement without being visually distracting.

Evidence includes but is not limited to:

Instructional materials are designed with appropriate use of white space to support student learning. Materials include information for lesson planning and implementation. All modules present tabbed pages to easily identify content on pages. In Module 1, the Teacher's Guide includes tabbed sections to identify lessons and essential skills for each module. Example of the sections: “Taller de lectura: Idea principal, Hacer y contestar preguntas, Propósito de la autora.”

Instructional materials provide Teacher Tips to develop learning. Teacher Tips are labeled as “Consejo para la enseñanza” and are embedded in the introduction of vocabulary words. In Module 2, the Teacher’s Guide offers guidance for teaching familiar concepts. Instructions are as follows: “Pida a voluntarios que representen una actividad matutina conocida, como lavarse la cara, cepillarse los dientes, atar los cordones de los zapatos o peinarse.”

Instructional materials include pictures and graphics that support the student's learning without being visually distracting. Materials provide clear visuals to support understanding of skills. In Module 3, the Teacher’s Guide includes suggestions for teachers to share pictures and videos to build understanding of new concepts. Teachers share a video about characters who overcome challenges. The video introduces the theme of the module. Example of the instructions are as follow: “Diga a los estudiantes que este video es informativo y ofrece datos sobre tres personajes famosos que superaron desafíos.”

Materials include text-to-speech functions. Each story has a speaker icon to read aloud for all students. The student online resource “MiLibro” includes components to read aloud the texts. The functions are located on the right-hand side of each story with visuals for students to identify where they can play, pause, or write notes of the story.

The materials include instructional support for planning and implementing lessons. For example, the end of every module includes pages with options for small group teaching and independent practice. The online materials do not comply with the flexibility and efficiency of use stated in the User Interface Design guidelines as they are not as easy to navigate. Sections are broken down into small parts, and not everything is accessible in one click. For example, Module 4 of the Teacher’s Guide has a reference to access the Teacher’s Resources. This requires returning to the dashboard to open another window. However, student materials are easier to navigate as there aren’t as many sections.

Teacher’s guides identify important information for lesson planning and implementation. For example, each module is divided by a different color on the border of the page. Within each module, lessons are in a different color to identify information about the module and what information is specific to the lessons. For example, Module 5 is identified with an orange border on all the pages, but the lessons inside the module have a red border. Specific information within a page is color-coded so that teachers easily locate what they are looking for. For example, the English version of the lesson is located at the outer sides of the pages with a grey background. Lesson steps have a header identified with the same color as the border.

The Teacher’s Guides include instructional support with information that is clearly stated and easily identified in the pages. For example, suggestions to accommodate Dual Language Settings appear in a dark-blue box. This section in a light-green box provides tips to develop a learning mindset. Ideas on small-group teaching are framed in a yellow box with an icon of multiple human figures at the corner. Also, resources available online are identified by a black and yellow icon, “Online Ed.”

Materials are visually engaging for both students and teachers without being overly stimulating. The images in nonfiction literature include real children engaged in activities relatable to the student. The illustrations in fiction stories use artwork similar to illustrations in award-winning children’s literature. Illustrations support and extend the text, and the art is consistent from page to page, with effective use of line, color, texture, and white space. Graphics engage and captivate the reader’s attention. For example, in Module 10, the text “Cómo la tecnología cambió la comunicación” includes a timeline, and the illustrations depict real communication tools. The pictures enable the readers to understand tools that no longer exist and reinforce the ones they may already know: “un telégrafo, una máquina de escribir, y computadoras personales.” Pictures are realistic and age-appropriate.