Programa Completo de Prekinder Get Set for School

Evaluation for 2.1
Materials are cross-curricular and integrated in an authentic way to support students’ unified experience throughout the day and/or unit.

Evidence includes but is not limited to:

The “Get Set for School Texas Correlations” download outlines the Texas Prekindergarten Guidelines by addressing each domain and skills throughout the curriculum. All Texas Prekindergarten Guidelines are present, including their location within the instructional materials. For example, the correlations guide identifies that standard “I.A.1 Child is aware of where own body is in space and respects personal boundaries” is present in certain pages of the “Teacher’s Guides.” The guide also identifies that the skill can be learned and applied through the use of various “Teacher Tools and Manipulatives” (specific materials are listed) and “Technology Resources and Music” (song names are provided). This document is helpful during the planning process. Teachers can reference this document to see which domains are purposefully developed or reinforced in each learning activity.

The materials contain content-building information for teachers about the domains being taught or reinforced and how multiple domains are integrated. For example, the theme overview provides information about how the unit addresses and develops multiple skills and concepts across domains. This section is called “Semana a la vista” and is found on the lesson overview page before each week’s lesson. This section identifies the domains developed or reinforced within each activity. There is a key with various symbols to identify which domains are targeted in each lesson. Each symbol represents a different domain from the Texas Prekindergarten Guidelines. For example, the heart represents “Abordajes de aprendizaje/Aprendizaje socioemocional,” the talking head “Lenguaje/Comunicación,” books “Alfabetización emergente,” a pencil “Escritura emergente,” a ruler “Matemáticas,” a beaker “Ciencias,” a globe “Estudios sociales,” a paintbrush “Artes creativas,” and a running figure “Desarrollo física.” Most lessons include a combination of these symbols which signify specific, intentional, and purposeful cross-curricular connections through an integrated curriculum.

The materials include lessons that integrate multiple developmental domains. In the “Lenguaje y alfabetización” section of a lesson from Unidad 1, the domains for the lesson are indicated. For example, “¿Qué estamos aprendiendo?” is indicated with the heart symbol, “Colaborar con los compañeros” with the talking head symbol, “Reconocer la hora del dia y entender las relaciones espaciales” with the ruler symbol, and “Entender el impacto del clima” with the science beaker symbol. Based on the symbols, this lesson integrates four developmental domains: Abordajes de aprendizaje/Aprendizaje socioemocional, Lenguaje/Comunicación, Matemáticas, and Ciencias. The integration of these domains into one lesson supports specific, intentional, and purposeful cross-curricular connections.

During a science lesson from Unidad 4, students discover more about the specific theme for the week. Students learn about the water cycle and scientists who study water issues, directly related to the weekly theme of “La Tierra.” The teacher reads a book about the water cycle and discusses the water cycle diagram. Next, with the help of a map, the teacher shows where a hydrologist can study water. This structure supports a very specific and intentional unified experience for students and authentically integrates the weekly theme into the lessons.

The materials include lessons in the domains of “Language and Communication,” “Emergent Literacy: Reading,” “Emergent Literacy: Writing,” “Mathematics,” “Science,” and “Social Studies.” The materials are organized around the common themes of getting ready for school, the body, community and games, the earth, machines, and animals. For example, in Unidad 6, the lessons are centered around the theme of “Los animales.” A Lenguaje y alfabetización lesson includes a read-aloud of the The Cat in the Hat and a “Habilidades de preparación y escritura” lesson includes an activity to trace and write a sentence about a horse running. In addition, a Ciencias lesson discusses information about the way animals breathe. This thematic organization provides multiple ways for students to learn and apply skills from various developmental domains through the material’s purposeful cross-curricular connections.

Evaluation for 2.2
Materials utilize high-quality texts as a core component of content and skill integration.

Evidence includes but is not limited to:

Supporting students’ skill and content development is evident through the books embedded in the lessons. The materials include texts written by well-known and expert authors such as Dr. Seuss, Eric Carle, Beverly Cleary, Margaret Wise Brown, Aliki Brandenberg, and Lewis Carroll. For example, Mis Cinco Sentidos by Aliki is included in the curriculum library. According to https://www.angelfire.com/zine2/jungchiu/Aliki.html, Aliki is well known and the recipient of many awards, including the New York Academy of Sciences Children's Book Award and the Prix du Livre pour Enfants (Geneva). These authors’ contributions to children’s literature are of high quality because their books contain engaging plots, beautiful illustrations, well-developed themes, and exciting characters. This approach demonstrates how the texts are strategically chosen to support content and skill development.

The materials include multiple text genres such as nonfiction, fiction, poetry, songs, and nursery rhymes. In the “Recursos” section of the “Get Set for School Guía para maestros de prekínder: Introducción al currículo,” there are two areas that list the books contained in the curriculum (“Conexiones con libros” and “Libros de todo el año”). In this same section, the “Biblioteca de Get Set for School” contains the books used in the lessons. The chart listing the titles includes the genre, domains, and targeted skills. For example, the chart lists the fiction book La semillita by Eric Carle is used in “Ciencias” to target learning skills about nature, seasons of the year, and occupations. In addition, the fable Ricitos de oro y los tres osos by Valeri Gorbachev is used to target recognizing size, counting, and analyzing situations. The nonfiction book Avión: Airplane by Alex Summers is used to target experimentation, the senses, transportation, and size. The materials include various genre texts that support content and skill development in multiple domains.

The Introducción al Currículo section of the Get Set for School Guía para maestros de prekínder lists books available in the instructional materials that are high quality, age-appropriate, and authentic Spanish texts. Abececirco by Daniel Nesquens, Abecedario salvaje by Yanitzia Canetti, La familia bola by Mónica Carretero, and Dentro de mi imaginación by Marta Arteaga are just a few of the titles that were originally written in Spanish. The implementation of such books not only supports the native Spanish-speaking students, but it validates their self-identity and promotes self-confidence.

In addition to authentic Spanish texts, the materials include bilingual texts originally written in Spanish and English. For example, María tenía una llamita by Ángela Domínguez, ¿Qué hay en el bosque? by Santiago Ochoa and Michelle Garcia Anderson, and Pío Peep: Traditional Spanish Nursery Rhymes by Alma Flor Ada. These texts present authentic, academic Spanish that celebrates childhood and Latin American heritage. The side-by-side Spanish and English also helps students make connections between the two languages. The translated texts within the materials are of high quality where the story’s message or information is not interrupted.

The materials include books that are culturally relevant to children. Multiple texts and other print resources included in the materials are relevant to students’ linguistic and cultural backgrounds. For example, I’m Like You, You’re Like Me/Yo soy como tu, tu eres como yo: Un libro para entendernos y apreciarnos by Cindy Gainer teaches students about diversity using kid-friendly language. This book uses terms such as cabello lacio o rizado, familias con muchas personas o pocas, cuerpos grandes o pequeños. This type of read-aloud represents diverse types of families and exposes students to different cultures.

The instructional materials include diverse texts throughout the curriculum that represent people of differing abilities and from various backgrounds, cultures, races, and ethnicities. Some of the titles include Podemos llevarnos bien: Un libro de alternativas para niños, Todos los colores de nuestra piel: La historia de por qué tenemos diferentes colores de piel, ¿De dónde eres?, Un Pequeño Libro Sobre Sentimientos, and Escuchando a Mi Cuerpo. Reading books representing diversity in so many areas allows students to be open to those who are different from themselves. The diversity and content of these texts help students better understand their own culture and that of others around them. These books also assist the teacher in forming a sense of acceptance and understanding of their own students.

Evaluation for 2.3
Materials support developmentally appropriate practice across all content domains.

Evidence includes but is not limited to:

The “Teacher’s Guide” includes recommendations for the organization and routine of activities to promote effective learning. For example, Volume 1 of the Teacher’s Guide provides the teacher with classroom management tips such as the appropriate amount of time for each activity. The guidance states, “Tomate 10 o 15 minutos para cada área de aprendizaje, aumentando hasta 20 minutos hacia el final del año,” which supports a developmentally appropriate amount of time for skill development. The materials also guide the teacher to establish a routine, a schedule, transitions, decide the location of each learning area, and plan ahead to “teach effectively.” Another document that supports the teacher's ability to actively facilitate learning and discovery through play is the “Get Set For School: A Complete Pre-K Program for Kindergarten Readiness Success.” This guide explains how the “multimodal, playful approach is at the heart of...success because young children are not ready to sit still and focus for long periods of time.” This information helps set up a learning environment that promotes positive early childhood outcomes. 

In addition, the “Organización del salón de clases” section of the “Get Set for School Guía para maestros de prekínder” provides recommendations for how to organize materials for writing lessons. The materials guide the teacher to “apila las copias de los niños de Mi Primer Libro Escolar y Mi Primer Libro en Minúsculas en el estante. Deja los crayones Flip Crayons en la caja de plástico y los lápices pequeños para manos pequeñas en la caja y colócalas junto al libro de actividades.” The recommendations in this lesson provide guidance to teachers on setting up and facilitating activities to meet, reinforce, or practice learning objectives.

The materials include a variety of opportunities designed for playful exploration during learning centers. In Volume 1 of the Teacher’s Guide, “centros de juegos libres” are outlined. In each section, there are lists of activities “dirigidos por los niños.” For example, a math center calls for the teacher to have “formas disponibles en una mesa o una área de juego o trabajo específico.” The students create “imágenes o diseños con las formas.” This activity provides opportunities for children to broaden and deepen their knowledge through play. The children are exploring shapes while creating images of their own. During this purposeful play, students use the shape knowledge they have acquired in a way that promotes student choice and is also appropriate for the content and skill development.

The materials include guidance to support the teacher's facilitation of learning and discovery through play across learning settings and domains. For example, a números y matemáticas lesson from Unidad 1 includes a game to identify objects with several attributes using students' sense of touch. The teacher states, “Construimos a Mat Man con las piezas de madera. Vamos a jugar un juego.” Next, students put their hand in a bag and guess what shape they are touching based on “tamaño (grande/pequeño) y forma (recta/curva).” After all the students have a turn, they order the pieces of wood by “tamaño y forma” and count each group of wood pieces together. This lesson helps teachers connect the “Números y matemáticas” domain to play. 

The materials provide information on how lessons and activities implement play to effectively teach a concept. For example, a science lesson from Unidad 3 allows students to play and do an ice cream relay. The teacher gathers balls of various sizes and weights. The teacher explains, “Vamos a imaginar que las bolas son bolas de helado. Las bolas más livianas te permitirán ir más rápido. Las bolas pesadas te harán ir más lento.” The students get in relay teams and race carrying balls of different weights. Given that the objective is for students to experiment with size, weight, and speed of balls, this form of play facilitates the discovery of this concept because children are exposed in an engaging way through play.

The materials provide guidance for teachers to support students in meeting learning objectives. Each activity plan includes step-by-step instructions for teachers to carry out the activities. For example, in Unidad 3, the students learn about healthy and unhealthy foods. The materials guide the teacher to have students name healthy and unhealthy food. Next, the materials prompt the teacher to read Oh, the Things You Can Do That Are Good for You: A Book About Staying Healthy. After reading, the teacher creates a T-chart with one column titled healthy and the other unhealthy. The students sort the pictures of food under each column of the T-chart. The instructions prompt the teacher to check for understanding by observing if students categorize the foods correctly and to provide verbal or physical prompts as necessary. At the end of the lesson, the teacher takes a picture of the chart and displays it in the classroom. These types of scripted details are provided for every lesson to assist teacher implementation and support students in meeting the learning objectives.

The materials also encourage teachers to use songs in many lessons to reinforce learning objectives. For example, in a science lesson from Unidad 4, the objective is for students to learn about rain. As students listen to the song “Canción de la lluvia,” they imitate the sound of rain as it falls from the sky. The implementation of music during the lessons supports activities to meet, reinforce, or practice learning objectives.

Evaluation for 2.4
Materials fit within a developmentally appropriate programmatic structure.

Evidence includes but is not limited to:

The “Ejemplo de horario y horarios alternativos” section of the “Get Set for School Guía para maestros de prekínder” specifies which lessons apply for a three-day week versus five-day programs. The materials state: “Sigue el alcance y secuencia de Get Set for School de lunes, miércoles y viernes. Agrega lecciones de ciencias o estudios sociales los martes y jueves cuando sea posible.” This document provides recommendations for differentiating programs that occur three days per week instead of five. Although the instructional materials are the same for half-day and full-day pre-k programs, this section’s sample class schedules provide differentiation. Both schedules have the same amount of time for whole group, small group, and teacher-led activities; however, the half-day schedule does not include lunch or nap time and has one recess instead of two. In addition, the half-day schedule suggests three center times instead of four. This guidance is only provided in the teacher’s guide and not within the actual lessons, which can make it difficult for teachers to apply in context.

In the “Introducción al currículo” section of the Get Set for School Guía para maestros de prekínder, the development stages from ages two to five are presented in a developmental sequence. It is useful for teachers to see how their students’ abilities align with the specific skills for the various domains available in this resource. Teachers can compare what a three-year-old versus a four-year-old child is expected to do. For example, at the age of three, a child is expected to know between 40 and 200 words, while that number increases to 200–400 words for a four-year-old. Although this guidance can help build teacher background knowledge, it is very general and does not include to which lessons this information could apply, nor do the lessons refer back to this chart. Furthermore, this section does not provide specific information to identify the materials for each age group. Since there is no differentiation between age groups, one can only assume that the materials are the same for both throughout the lessons. This means that every lesson might not be appropriate for one of the age groups. For instance, a three-year-old is expected to know numbers up to 10, and four-year olds up to 20. By looking at these development stages, the math domain in the entire curriculum is geared toward four-year-old students since the math lessons cover up to number 20 by the end of the year. Even though the teacher can use the developmental stages available in the Teacher’s Guide to lead instruction, differentiation for expectations of a three-year-old versus a four-year-old are not present in the lessons. 

The “Semana a simple vista” section gives an overview of the weekly lessons and includes “sugerencias para niños de tres años.” This section provides one suggestion per day of the week for three-year-old students. While this part of the materials helps to differentiate lessons for three-year-old children, it is one suggestion and the connection to which activity it applies is not always clear. In addition, no differentiation of instruction for three or four-year-old students is available within the actual lessons or daily lesson structure. 

The materials provide general scaffolding suggestions through the “Apoyo” and “Enriquecimiento” sections embedded within the lessons. For example, in a “Ciencias” lesson from Unidad 1, the students identify and classify pictures of plants and animals by color. The Apoyó section states, “Haz que los niños nombren los colores de las imágenes.” The Enriquecimiento section calls for students to discuss “¿Cuáles son algunas de las diferencias entre plantas y animales?” Although these sections help to scaffold for students who are not understanding the lesson or for students who are ready for a challenge, it does not specify ages or mention student populations. 

The materials do not include additional learning activities such as supplementary read-aloud books, center activities, or movement and music activities, specifically for the full-day program. As a result, there is limited differentiation regarding the instructional materials between the two schedules. For example, in a math lesson from Unidad 4, the list of materials include “objetos para contar que comiencen con la letra P.” These objects are utilized to practice counting using items that start with the letter students are learning that particular week. This activity is expected to be carried out whether the program is half-day or full-day, but there are no additional opportunities for this activity to be reinforced during the full-day program. For instance, one of the center’s activities could be students drawing these objects and labeling them accordingly in an “ABC Journal.” Recommendations for supplementary opportunities during full-day programs would enhance the differentiation between half-day and full-day pre-k programs.

Evaluation for 2.5
Materials include detailed guidance that supports teacher’s delivery of instruction.

Evidence includes but is not limited to:

The materials provide detailed examples of student actions as teacher look-fors, specifically in the areas of “Language and Alphabetization,” “Readiness and Writing,” and “Numbers and Math.” For example, the “Matemáticas” section of the “Etapas del desarrollo del aprendizaje” lists skills appropriate for each age from two to five. A two-year-old could be expected to “contar en voz alta hasta 3 y dar 1 objeto” and show how old they are using their fingers. Three-year-old students should be able to “contar en voz alta hasta 10,” “contar de 3 a 5 objetos,” and count objects up to three in any order. A four-year-old could be expected to “contar en voz alta hasta 20 o más,” “contar de 6 a 10 objetos,” and count objects up to five in any order. There is also guidance for five-year-olds. This guidance helps the teacher to understand appropriate skill expectations from their students to support student development and proficiency of content and skills.

The materials provide explicit teacher guidance to support students’ development and proficiency of content and skills. For example, the “Actividades multisensoriales de Lenguaje y alfabetización” section of the “Get Set for School Guía para maestros de prekínder” provides guidance for the use of alphabet cards to teach upper- and lower-case correspondence. The materials guide the teacher to give each student “una tarjeta de letras A-B-C Touch and Flip.” The students explore around the classroom and “establezcan correspondencias con las letras de los objetos del salón de clases.” The teacher gives each student a counter for each letter match that is found. In addition, the materials provide details to support the teacher in teaching letter names. The materials state: “Las letras minúsculas más fáciles de reconocer son las que se parecen a sus mayúsculas. Cuando llegue el momento de que los niños reconozcan las letras minúsculas, enseña primero las letras c, o, s, v, y, w….” These instructional tips provide the teacher with explicit guidance for teaching pre-k skills. 

The materials include detailed guidance for student actions within the weekly lesson overviews that support student development and proficiency of content and skills. For example, the preview for a weekly lesson in Unidad 1 lists the following student actions: “turnarse, escuchar/seguir instrucciones, hacer una predicción sobre un libro mirando imágenes e ilustraciones, usar el conocimiento previo para hacer predicciones sobre una historia, escuchar para saber qué sucedió en una historia, escuchar para conversar.” These student actions are carried out during the “Lenguaje y alfabetización” sections and help students master the objectives by guiding teachers to engage them in conversations, make predictions, and activate background knowledge before reading a story to the class.

The curriculum includes a balance of explicit teaching strategies and teacher guidance that allows students to explore the objectives in different ways. Each part of the curriculum’s lessons is broken down step-by-step and includes a script and directions for the teacher to follow. For example, in Unidad 3, the Social Studies objective is for students to learn about celebrations. The lesson begins with students dancing to the song “¡Al prekínder!” using movements (included in the materials). After the song, the lesson prompts the teacher to say, “¡El prekínder es una fiesta! ¿Cómo te sentiste cantando y bailando esa canción?” The teacher facilitates a discussion about different celebrations that students enjoy with their families to assist students in making a connection to celebrations. At the end of the lesson, the materials prompt the teacher to lead the students in planning a celebration for school staff to apply the learning. These step-by-step lesson instructions, provided for all lessons, provide teachers with the necessary guidance to effectively teach pre-kindergarten skills and support student development of content and skills. 

The materials provide guidance for connecting student’s prior content knowledge and experiences to new learning. In a Lenguaje y alfabetización lesson from Unidad 4, students review the letter B and its sound. The teacher states, “Busquemos en la escuela o salón de clases objetos que comiencen con el sonido B.” Next, the teacher takes the students around the room, exploring for objects that start with the letter B. Students use their knowledge of object names and letter sounds to help them complete this activity. The teacher makes “una lista de todos los objetos encontrados que empiecen con B.” The students put together a collage of images, pictures, etc., of the objects they found. The materials provide detailed guidance for connecting students’ prior knowledge to new learning by having students review the letter sound and explore their environment for names of objects that start with the same letter. 

Because each unit’s themes are interesting for the students, it makes it easier to connect their prior knowledge to new learning. The theme for Unidad 6 is “Animales.” In one particular lesson, students discuss what dinosaurs eat. The teacher reads the book ¿Cómo comen los dinosaurios sus alimentos? and guides students to put plastic dinosaurs in groups based on what they eat. The students use their prior knowledge about food items (discussed in previous units) to determine which group each dinosaur should be placed in (carnivores or herbivores). This activity allows students to connect their prior knowledge to new learning.

Evaluation for 2.6
Materials are supported by child development research on children’s development within and across all domains.

Evidence includes but is not limited to:

The “Research Review” section in the “Get Set for School: A complete Pre-K Program for Kindergarten Readiness Success” provides an explanation of how the materials align to child development research. The materials state that their “unique Pre-K program makes teaching easy and rewarding with: A research-based approach that uses several resources of engagement, representation, and expression to involve a child’s whole body and her senses in learning.” This section also provides information about the importance of phonological awareness. The materials state that according to MacLean, Bryant, and Brandley (1987), “nursery rhymes, rhyming games, and finger plays provide an engaging and fun avenue for children to learn the sounds and rhythms of language” and children “who have knowledge of nursery rhymes develop stronger phonological awareness skills.” The materials provide clear descriptions of early childhood development research that support the curriculum. 

Another part of the Research Review section discusses the “Math” domain. The materials state that children’s knowledge of numbers has been found to be a predictor of not just their future math skills but their overall academic success in all domains. In addition, the implementation of manipulatives, songs, movement, and read-alouds during math lessons supports child development and helps children make connections in a way that reinforces learning. There is a clear description of how the curriculum supports child development research; this document explains that “when students engage in exploration, it extends their knowledge in a meaningful and everlasting way.”

The Research Review section also discusses the “Emergent Writing” domain. For instance, the curriculum provides justification regarding how lessons in the Emergent Writing domain are organized. Students first start with learning pencil grip and then move on to stroke acquisition. The gradual release model is used with the instructional strategy “Wait, watch me. My turn first.” This scaffolding approach builds on students’ dexterities to encourage success since the teacher actively aids students to master these skills. Furthermore, the research explains how stroke acquisition is also reinforced when students participate in drawing. This information enriches educator understanding of early childhood development and validates the recommended approach.

The materials cite current research relevant to early childhood development in the field of second language development, specifically regarding English Learners (ELs), which accounts for a significant number of students in Texas. Research-Based Methods of Reading Instruction for English Language Learners, Grades K–4 (S. Linan-Thompson and S. Vaughn, 2007) points out that one effective approach to help ELs who struggle is providing small group instruction where students with the same literacy skills are grouped together. When students work in centers, the teacher can group them accordingly. The research presented rationalizes targeting specific concepts to students who need more explicit instruction to develop the skills they lack. 

The “Referencias” section of the teacher’s guide contains a bibliography with research presented throughout the materials, including academic articles and research books used for the lessons of alphabetization, writing, and mathematics. For example, a reference used in an “Alfabetización, escritura, y preparación” lesson includes the work of Marie Clay, who wrote “Exploring with a Pencil, Theory into Practice” in 1997. Another reference used in a mathematics lesson cites D. H. Clements, who wrote “Measurement in Pre-K to Grade 2 Mathematics: Engaging Young Children in Mathematics” in 2004. Although academic and relevant, most of the research does not include sources acclaimed within recent years. Of the 124 research sources cited, only 23 were 10 years old or less.

Evaluation for 3.1
Materials include direct social skill instruction and explicit teaching of skills.

The evidence from the English materials in this report can be verified in full within the transadaptated and translated Spanish materials. 

Evidence includes but is not limited to: 

Volume 1 of the “Teacher’s Guide” includes guidance on introducing and discussing particular topics. A sample “Circle Time” script contains guidance to include a social and emotional skills-themed book during this part of the day. The Teacher’s Guide also includes a list of all texts included in the materials. Many of the texts come from specific thematic units of instruction but can be used in a cross-curricular approach to support the development of the “Social-Emotional” domain. In the “Book Connections” section, which lists recommended texts for each unit, there is a specific “Social-Emotional Learning” sub-section. Titles on this list include Have You Filled Your Bucket Today? by Carol McCloud and David Messing; How Kind by Mary Murphy; Should I Share My Ice Cream? by Mo Willems; How Do Dinosaurs Play with Their Friends? by Jane Yolen; and The Rabbit Listened by Cori Doerrfeld. The materials also include suggestions for specific texts to support social and emotional competencies, such as I’m Like You and You’re Like Me: A Book About Understanding and Appreciating Each Other by Cindy Gainer and We Can Get Along: A Child’s Book of Choices by Lauren Murphy Payne. The materials include specific texts related to diversity, such as All the Colors We Are by Katie Kissinger; Where Are You From? by Yamile Saied Mendez; and It's Okay to be Different by Todd Parr. In addition, three unit themes in the materials support student exploration of social situations, which enhances social awareness: “Get Set for School,” “My Body,” and “Community and Play.” Materials in the Teacher’s Guide also include school-home connections and parent resources to address social and emotional issues. The materials also provide a list of additional books to reinforce or extend learning, including A Sick Day for Amos, Good People Everywhere, Have You Filled Your Bucket Today?, Kindness is Cooler, and Say Hello Like This! Links to additional learning resources online from “The Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning” support social competences and social development. 

In Unit 1, students sing the “Hello Song,” which teaches how to say hello and shake hands with your right hand. The teacher models how to shake hands by shaking each child’s right hand. Then the teacher models and asks children to raise their right hand and say, “This is my right hand. I shake with my right hand.” Afterward, children take turns greeting and shaking hands with each other, which supports social awareness and relationships with others. This activity exemplifies direct teaching of social and emotional skills, which are gradually released, guiding teacher modeling. In addition, the materials integrate social and emotional skills throughout the daily lessons. For example, in Unit 1, children practice active listening during a read-aloud; however, this lesson does not include explicit instruction directing teachers to model active listening. While there are teacher models for certain skills, there are inconsistent social skill instruction models. The materials for each unit are linked to the Teacher’s Guide and identify texts to support social competencies development; for example, Should I Share My Ice Cream? examines social skills, and How Do Dinosaurs Play with Their Friends? supports social awareness by demonstrating peer interactions. In one lesson of the unit, students learn about the sequence and parts of the body by building a “Mat Man” while the teacher passes out each part. This activity is repeated multiple times throughout the year. After sitting on the floor in a circle, students “build Mat Man on the floor,” and teachers “give Mat Man parts to the children.” Students sing the “Mat Man” song and can add accessories. A “Check for Understanding” tells teachers to observe the students: “Do they take turns and name the pieces correctly?” While this is related to social skill practice, the lesson does not include instructional guidance for the teacher to model and gradually release the activity to the students. 

Unit 2 provides lessons to teach self-control and relationships with others. In the theme “About the Body,” students count and name body parts; for example, “I have two eyes, two knees, two ears, etc.” This lesson supports self-regulation skills aligned with Texas Prekindergarten Guidelines. In another part of Unit 2, students work in pairs, taking turns to compare sets of more and less. The materials provide guidance to support the small group activity, which builds relationships with others. Teachers are provided some guidance to model activities during the unit. For example, language and literacy activities, such as singing songs, require students to follow directions modeled by the teacher. Although the activities do provide modeling for some areas, not all activities include guidance for teacher modeling. 

In Unit 4, multiple social and emotional skills are included in the lessons, with topics such as cooperation, demonstrating active listening, taking turns, and following directions. These skills are integrated within academic content. For example, in a math lesson on the number nine, children practice writing the number on a slate chalkboard. This lesson is identified as supporting turn-taking and listening skills since each child volunteers and waits their turn to model the writing skill demonstrated by the teacher. In a whole group “Oral Language” activity, children repeat the words shine and reflect, while a peer shines a flashlight on a wall (shine) and a mirror (reflect). The activity is identified as supporting turn-taking and engagement. Though there are multiple instances of social and emotional skills included or referenced in lesson plans, the materials do not include consistent teacher modeling guidance. Sometimes the teacher uses the instructional tool, Squawker (puppet), to summarize social skills, but these interactions often fall short of a full model. Teacher modeling in each lesson is limited to the specific skill identified as the lesson’s primary focus. The Teacher's Guide provides some texts that link to social competencies. However, these books only relate to social skill instruction generally; while they are tied directly to some activities, they do not connect directly to social skill instruction or lessons specifically. Texts included in the Volume 1, “Books All Year” section are organized and connected to lessons via learning area (e.g., “Numbers and Math,” “Science,” “Language and Literacy”) and not via social skills.

Evaluation for 3.2
Materials include repeated opportunities for students to practice social skills throughout the day.

The evidence from the English materials in this report can be verified in full within the transadaptated and translated Spanish materials. 

Evidence includes but is not limited to: 

The “Teacher's Guide” includes a materials list that provides additional activities to support lessons throughout the units. The materials provide a “Readiness and Writing” multisensory activity called “Shake Hands With Me.” This activity teaches children “how to meet and greet appropriately” while also teaching them about their right versus left hand. There is also a “My Turn, Your Turn” activity, which has the teacher take a turn while the child waits; then the child takes their turn and imitates the teacher’s actions. The instructional materials make recommendations of visuals, music, and structures that support children’s abilities to practice new skills and reinforce skills in a variety of ways throughout the daily lessons. The additional resources allow concepts and skills to be integrated across units while allowing children to continue to practice skills from earlier activities. 

In Unit 1, students participate in a multisensory activity by taking turns greeting and shaking hands with each other; they follow the teacher’s model and use their right hand. This model repeats throughout the daily lesson, providing multiple opportunities for children to reinforce and practice social skills in a variety of settings. For example, the social skill of “taking turns” can be found in multiple units across the materials and in multiple academic domains within Unit 1. In a “Social Studies” lesson in Unit 1, children discuss what makes a friend and give examples of a good friend. Together, the class makes a list of ten things friends do. This lesson promotes social skills through collaboration while integrating math and literacy skills. 

In Unit 2, children participate in a literacy lesson that encourages discussion with others. For example, children listen to a book about a farm, Growing Pumpkins, to make connections to learning about the letter F. Following the reading, children create the letter F using wood pieces and engage in a guided discussion comparing frogs and fish. Students have further opportunities to have conversations with peers when discussing words that begin with the /f/ sound. During a movement activity later in the day, students hop like frogs, which helps develop a sense of space and awareness.

In Unit 4, some examples of social skills taught in one day include practicing turn-taking within a “Language and Literacy” lesson, practicing sequencing and demonstrating active listening skills during a Readiness and Writing lesson, and demonstrating listening skills during a "Numbers and Math" lesson when they are given instructions to work in their “I Know My Numbers Booklet 8” and follow directions provided orally by the teacher. This schedule provides children with opportunities to practice new skills in a variety of ways and in different settings since each activity is different. The skills are repeated and reinforced throughout the day and across different instructional domains to support the integration of skill practice. 

In Unit 6, additional opportunities to learn, practice, and apply previously learned social skills are included for whole group and small group instruction. For example, in a small group activity, children match and stack large shape pieces while working collaboratively with peers. In a large group math lesson, children take turns making a shape and showing the shape to peers to support turn-taking and interacting with peers. 

Evaluation for 3.3
Materials include ideal classroom arrangements that support positive social interactions.

The evidence from the English materials in this report can be verified in full within the transadaptated and translated Spanish materials. 

Evidence includes but is not limited to: 

The instructional materials provide guidance and visuals of effective classroom arrangement, including attention to the organization of the space and furnishings as well as daily routines to support students’ practice of social skills. For example, the materials provide suggestions for designated areas for both teacher-led and child-led activities. The “Teacher’s Guide” provides information on the structure of child-led/free-play centers. The guidance for classroom centers supports children to “explore and interact with their peers through play.” The materials suggest hosting these centers at either a table or on the carpet. Although the activities are included, the materials lack specific guidance for teachers to support the practice of social skills and social development. For example, in Volume 2 of the Teacher’s Guide, children engage in a letter hunt: They are given a “Touch-and-Go ABC Flip Letter Card” and explore the room for objects that match the letters. The materials support peer engagement for the activity but do not include guidance on classroom arrangements for implementation in centers. The materials address the need to include positive transition activities to assist children with learning daily routines and rules while lessening potential behavior-related issues but lack steps to support classroom arrangements for this element of the day. 

Materials in the “Introduction to the Curriculum” within Volume 1 of the Teacher’s Guide include how to organize a classroom and different areas in the classroom to support teacher-student and student-student interactions. For example, a visual shows the teacher on a carpet with three students working with letter cards, two students at a table sharing blocks, and a shelf with bins labeled with student materials. For teacher-led activities, the materials suggest setting up the classroom “to include one or more specific areas where children will know that a teacher or other adult should be present and directing the instruction.” Also: “Make sure your children are situated so they can easily see and hear you. It is also important that children can easily participate in the activities during group exercises.” For child-led centers, the classroom guidance states that “these could be at a table, but they could also be on the carpet or another designated section of the classroom.” In the “Classroom Setup” section of the Teacher's Guide, there is specific guidance on establishing a table for the teacher-led center, or centers, if there is a teacher’s aide. The materials also instruct teachers to leave all other tables as child-led centers. This setup ensures that there will be a space for teacher-student interactions and multiple spaces for student-student interactions throughout the classroom. The Teacher's Guide also provides diagrams and websites teachers can use to help design space needed for the implementation of the curriculum. The materials do not include options to support a variety of classroom designs and sizes.

Volume 1 of the Teacher’s Guide also provides support for the teacher and considers some factors when discussing physical space but contains limited guidance on the impact of physical space on students’ social development. The guide explains the importance of organization for the teacher and for the students: “An environment where children can easily locate items, know what comes next in the day, and understand why they are participating in various activities provides structure and builds security. A cheerful, well-organized classroom helps you to teach effectively and allows the children in your classroom to easily access toys and materials that will help them grow and learn.” The materials make specific recommendations for the placement of materials; for example, “Stack the children’s copies of ‘My First School Book’ and ‘My First Lowercase Book’ on the shelf.” The materials also consider time, daily routines, and specific activities when they make recommendations for classroom arrangement. The materials do not make specific mention of how the physical arrangement of the space supports social development, but they do mention that predictability and consistency strengthens a child’s sense of security. As each activity is summarized in the “Multisensory Activities” section, descriptions sometimes include supplies lists, tips about lesson tools or manipulatives, and organizing and storing supplies. While the directions may indirectly support positive social interactions, the rationale is not clearly stated, the directions mostly remain general, and guidance does not consider a variety of factors and components that may impact social development.

The instructional materials are implemented easily and effectively within a classroom arrangement that supports positive social interactions. Volume 2 of the Teacher’s Guide provides lessons that may be used in small groups, whole group, or both, to support social interactions. Some lessons provide embedded social interaction based on classroom arrangements. For example, in Unit 3, students work together and take turns blending onsets and rimes using tiles. The teacher has a choice to do this in various group structures. The flexibility in classroom arrangements allows the teacher to adapt the materials based on the needs of the children. For example, Unit 2 includes the read-aloud Waiting Is Not Easy, which supports emotional regulation and interactions with others. The materials provide guidance for both whole group and small group reading and setup. Although materials provide support for flexible grouping in the classroom arrangements, these supports include few additional resources for teachers to effectively organize or manage space ensuring positive social interactions.

The instructional materials cover classroom setup before children arrive at the beginning of the year but not what is done with children throughout the year. The materials suggest dedicating a shelf and area for specific resources and activities for each academic content area. For example, one activity guides teachers to “assemble the Sound Around Book and keep the Magnetic Wood Pieces inside the box, placing the box of Magnetic Picture Tiles and Color Tiles beside it.” The entire list can be found in the Classroom Setup section of the Teacher’s Guide, Volume 1. The materials suggest teachers plan ahead and keep all areas organized to make the classroom more efficient. Although there is guidance for teachers, there is no support for engaging and including children in a classroom arrangement. There is no evidence of classroom arrangements to promote student ownership of space. 

Evaluation for 3.4
Materials include activities to develop physical skill and refine motor development through movement.

The evidence from the English materials in this report can be verified in full within the transadaptated and translated Spanish materials. 

Evidence includes but is not limited to: 

Unit 2 focuses on “My Body” with various activities to promote children’s movement that develops gross motor skills. In the “At a Glance” section of the lesson guide, an icon of a person running indicates gross motor activities. Gross motor skills are incorporated in most domains per week, and they are noted multiple times throughout the unit. Some examples of physical skills and gross motor activities center on body awareness, balance, and the use of large muscle groups to maintain posture, position, and mobility. For example, in a science activity, physical movements are used to act out high and low stretches with body parts to promote physical awareness. Additional materials include the “Ants Go Marching” song, which guides teachers through a class movement activity. Most daily physical activities focus on writing, although there are some additional opportunities to develop fine motor skills that do not require writing. For example, a later Unit 2 math lesson includes finger-play: Children move fingers to show age. Other fine motor activities provide guidance on specific skills such as holding an item to stabilize it and using the hand to stabilize the tool in reading, developing pinch and grab. 

In Unit 3, students dance and sing to a song called “I Am a Fine Musician,” which teaches them about various instruments. Movement is integrated within Unit 3 lessons, such as when students sing “Sing, Sound, and Count With Me” and clap the syllables in children’s names. Activities promoting child movement that develop gross motor skills are embedded during instructional time. In this unit, there are also activities to develop fine motor skills, such as when students use wooden pieces and dough to build capital letters and “Tag Bags” to measure a table. As an extension of the unit activity, students have a choice to create drawings or art to retell a story. Most daily activities and resources require writing with crayons, dry erase markers, or chalk. However, additional activities integrate other manipulatives and do not require writing. Additional manipulatives include wooden pieces, plastic shapes, play-dough, puzzle pieces, etc.

Unit 5 includes additional activities to promote physical skills and gross motor development. For example, students move around the classroom to pair up with students who have the same letter card as them; once found, the pair sits down together. There is also at least one multisensory introduction a week, which includes a song and movement to introduce a concept. All of these activities are integrated into lessons. The materials come with albums, which support the teacher in incorporating musical songs and movement. Also, in this unit, there is evidence of activities to support fine motor skills of grasp and roll. For example, students roll playdough to make the letter M. In another activity, children use scissors to cut and paste the letter N from a magazine or newspaper.

Evaluation for 3.5
Materials include activities that develop safe and healthy habits in students.

The evidence from the English materials in this report can be verified in full within the transadaptated and translated Spanish materials. 

Evidence includes but is not limited to: 

The “Teacher’s Guide” includes all the resources that are mentioned throughout the lessons focused on health and safety. For example, if a lesson during the “My Body” unit needs a resource, it will be provided for the teacher. Most of the resources relevant to safe and healthy habits are the vocabulary cards that contain a visual representation and the word for various body parts, and the verbs that accompany them. These resources provide support for a variety of activities focused on safe and healthy habits, but they do not provide direct guidance for teacher modeling. Several CD albums are also included in the resources, with songs that encourage incorporating movement into the lesson to promote health. There are also some books included with the materials that support children in developing healthy habits, such as Oh, The Things You Can Do That Are Good For You: All About Staying Healthy by Tish Rabe; Germs Are Not For Sharing by Elizabeth Verdick; Pony Brushes His Teeth by Michael Dahl; and Wash, Wash, Wash: The Wash Your Hands Story by Grace Garrett. An additional list of relevant texts can be found under the “Book Connections” section of this resource. While there is a subsection dedicated to “Social-Emotional Learning,” the texts listed here are not accessible through the GSS portal. Teachers need to access the texts outside of GSS and develop their own lessons. The texts are summarized, but there is not an explanation communicating the connection between physical and mental health. While useful, it does not include activities ensuring students develop safe and healthy habits.

The materials do not provide opportunities for students to build on the lessons surrounding healthy habits, and there are no specific lessons on nutrition or exercise, so there are no corresponding activities. The materials in the Teacher's Guide do not provide information for teachers about the importance of developing physical skills as a connection to mental health, and they do not provide support for teachers to learn about the importance of planning and encouraging safe and healthy habits in children’s activities. The only support provided to teachers in this area is found in the Teacher’s Guide, Volume 1, which recommends that teachers “alternate the level of physical activity involved as much as possible,” suggesting that, after students listen to a lesson while sitting, the teacher incorporates movement in the next lesson or activity. 

Unit 1 introduces body parts in connection to healthy habits. There is a science lesson to teach children to identify their body parts and the senses that go with them by looking at a visual poster of “Mat Man.” Throughout the unit, other lessons integrate these body parts and practice using different senses. This lesson teaches children to identify body parts but does not explicitly connect to healthy habits and the importance of physical movement for mental health. This unit also does not provide opportunities for teacher modeling of these concepts. The materials do not communicate ways to make a connection for children between physical and mental health in an appropriate way. 

In Unit 2, the materials include one entire thematic unit entitled “My Body,” which includes lessons on personal health and healthy habits. During each week of the unit, there are sub-themes, such as dental health, how the brain works, and how our arms work. The lessons are taught during the “Science, Social Studies, or Oral Language” portion of the day, but they are not integrated into other academic content areas. Some science activities include identifying and describing body parts while singing a song called “Tap, Tap, Tap”; students find different body parts like their toes and nose. In another activity, students identify and describe parts of the body that are hard (bones) and soft (e.g., lips, skin). In a lesson on oral health, the teacher uses a parrot puppet to tell students what brush and floss mean. The next day, the teacher models, and students practice the skills. This activity is one example where teachers model healthy habits; however, modeling is not consistently included in most lessons on safe and healthy habits. Students also see how germs spread by placing glitter on their hands then touching other items. Afterward, students practice removing the germs by washing their hands. The activity also discusses proper hand washing, using warm soapy water, and singing the “Happy Birthday” song twice. These opportunities allow students to practice and reflect on healthy habits after the teacher models the behavior. The Oral Language lessons all introduce relevant body vocabulary, such as knee, leg, reach, bend, think, brush, floss, lungs, sneeze, and illness, which reinforces health concepts for children. A Social Studies lesson teaches students about the community helpers who help them when they are sick. Although the materials address health and safety, there is no material to support the connection between physical and mental health. There is a week focused on the brain, but the lessons teach children that their brain is for thinking and remembering, rather than about mental health and feeling good.

In Unit 3, the materials include lessons related to safety. For example, the teacher reads Oh, The Things You Can Do That Are Good For You: All About Staying Healthy by Tish Rabe. After reading the book, the class classifies foods as healthy or unhealthy on a chart to be posted in the classroom. The materials also include the text Crossing Guards by Joann Early Macken. After the teacher reads the book, students practice “Stop and Go.” In this case, the materials do not include more specific guidance on how to model these habits further. Materials also do not include recommendations for teachers on how to address unsafe or unhealthy child habits in a positive and supportive way. While there are some lessons in Unit 3 that help students develop safe and healthy habits, this is not consistent, and children are not provided a variety of opportunities to practice and reflect on safe and healthy habits. There is also no information to support the connection between physical and mental health. 

Evaluation for 4.1
Materials provide guidance on developing students’ listening skills.

Evidence includes but is not limited to:

Twenty-four Spanish songs support and enhance listening skills through the use of alliteration, rhyme, and repetition. Students listen to and sing songs such as “Pega, pega, pégales,” “Estoy feliz de verte,” and “Adivina la rima” every day throughout the entire curriculum. This activity provides students the opportunity to hear sounds and appropriate sentence structure in a variety of contexts.

At the beginning of Unit 1, the teacher models conversation norms by shaking hands and greeting another person using Squawker (a stuffed animal) while students listen. The materials state: “Haz que Squawker le diga hola al ayudante. Hola soy Squawker. Es un placer saludarte.” The teacher introduces how to meet other people. The teacher says: “Cuando las personas se saludan, a veces se dan la mano. Darse la mano es juntar las palmas de las manos y moverlas hacia arriba y hacia abajo.” The teacher provides a sentence for students to repeat and practice with a partner. Students practice taking turns greeting each other by using the correct vocabulary such as hola. In another activity, the teacher explains and models looking into the other person’s eyes when speaking. The materials state, “Haz que Squawker mire al ayudante y diga hola.” Both of these activities allow the teacher to model active listening and students to hear and practice conversation norms.

In the next section of Unit 1, the teacher models how to draw a person, one step at a time, and sings a line of a poem that references the body part drawn. The teacher states, “Mi turno, Mat Man tiene una cabeza.” Afterward, students imitate the teacher’s actions to demonstrate understanding through listening. In a different lesson, the teacher models action verbs, nouns, and complete sentences. Students hear songs and form sentences using new nouns to demonstrate understanding. The teacher states: “Di las palabras con Squawker. Los amigos son personas que nos agradan” The students repeat each word and letter. This lesson allows students to hear grammatically correct sentences and use appropriate sentence structure in various ways.

Throughout Unit 1 and 2, there are opportunities for students to hear sounds then distinguish between the two. For example, the teacher states, “Escuchemos las palabras. Ensalada…ensalada = igual. Ensalada…elefante = diferente.” This lesson focuses on the children listening to and identifying if two spoken words are the same. 

In Unit 4, the teacher facilitates a debate and models the use of adjectives in conversations. The materials state: “Haz que Squawker diga: Las piscinas tienen un extremo profundo. ¿Qué puedes hacer en el extremo profundo? ¿Qué puedes hacer en el extremo superficial?” For enrichment and to further the conversation, the teacher says, “Los charcos son superficiales. Los lagos pueden tener puntos superficiales, pero pueden ser profundos en otras partes.” This enrichment opportunity allows students to deepen their knowledge of the terms under discussion. 

Unit 5 includes a lesson where the teacher models proper manners for leaving the dinner table by saying, “Gracias por la cena. Con permiso, por favor.” The students practice using manners during snack time while the teacher checks for understanding. The teacher walks around and listens to student conversations to see if they are using please and thank you when requesting something. In this lesson, students hear and practice manners that follow conversation norms.

Evaluation for 4.2
Materials provide guidance on developing students’ speaking skills.

Evidence includes but is not limited to:

All components provide student-friendly and engaging activities by incorporating hands-on manipulatives, books, and songs. In the album Sing, Sound, and Count With Me, the movements to the music teach important math and literacy skills. Each song has suggested physical activities. For example, for the song “Las hormigas marchan,” the students march around the classroom and hold up their fingers to show what number they are on as they sing the song. The repetition of this song supports language development as students practice their speaking skills in a predictable manner. Vocabulary is also incorporated in the songs. For example, in the song “Sonríe,” students sing along and make facial expressions for each verse. In addition, “La canción de las sílabas” provides a creative activity where students clap out syllables throughout the song. These songs allow the teacher to facilitate activities where students practice producing a variety of sounds, appropriate sentence structure, and grammar.

The “Get Set for School Guía para maestros de prekínder” includes guidance to support the children’s oral language development. The section titled “Conexiones y centros con libros” includes opportunities for children to practice sound production through storytelling and dramatization. The materials state, “Haz que los niños usen el centro para el juego teatral y los materiales para volver a contar la historia.” This section also demonstrates how to set up and facilitate activities that allow students to develop their speaking skills. In the introduction, the “Etapas del desarrollo del niño” provides detailed expectations for language and alphabetization from ages two to five. Under “Uso de palabras,” the materials state the students should be able to “Empezar a usar verbos irregulares que indican pasado, pudo/pude (no podía)” and “Comparar y usar palabras de posición y de tiempo.” This information builds the teachers' background knowledge surrounding expectations for language development at different ages, which helps to provide students with appropriate corrective feedback. 

The materials provide opportunities for students to practice producing sounds using different songs and games, with sentence stems to support various language proficiency levels. For example, in Unit 1, the teacher models using Squawker the stuffed toy to use a complete sentence to say their name. The teacher says, “¿Cómo te llamas? Me llamo....” The students use the modeled sentence stem to tell their name while the teacher writes it on the board. To close the activity, the teacher and students sing the “Las letras forman palabras” song. This activity supports students’ speaking abilities and includes a sentence stem with prompts to support children’s speech production and appropriate sentence structure.

Throughout the materials, there is teacher guidance regarding how to support students’ speech production, sentence structure, and grammar. Each “Lenguaje y alfabetización” lesson has an “Apoyo” piece with extra activities the teacher can implement. For example, in Unit 3, the directions state, “Tiende las fichas de palabras por el niño a medida que dice su oración.” This guidance indicates how the teacher is helping increase students’ understanding of sentence structure by realizing that each counter represents a word. Another activity from Unit 3 provides guidance for students to ask and respond to questions using the song “Preguntar y responder.” The materials state, “Haz la primera pregunta. Luego, guía a los niños para cantar la respuesta. Da la oportunidad a los niños para que se ofrezcan de voluntarios para cantar una pregunta. Observa a los niños mientras formulan y responden preguntas.” In this activity, students respond to each other through song, which allows them to work collaboratively and engage in discussion while the teacher monitors their speech for opportunities to give corrective feedback.

The materials in Unit 5 provide guidance to conduct a read-aloud and identify rhyming words. The teacher reads Green Eggs and Ham, highlights words that rhyme, and checks for student understanding of rhyming words. This activity allows students to practice the production of sounds (rhyming words) within the context of a read-aloud. Identifying rhymes also capitalize on opportunities for students to develop their grammatical knowledge by studying the phonology of the words and understanding how inflection works within the context of language.

Evaluation for 4.3
Materials support expanding student vocabulary.

Evidence includes but is not limited to:

On the side of each lesson, there is a “Vocabulario” section that specifies the new vocabulary for that lesson. In Unidad 1, the teacher models two new words using Squawker, a bird puppet, to explain new vocabulary words and engage the students. The teacher states: “Di las palabras con Squawker. Nuevo y viejo son opuestos. Nuevo describe algo que acabamos de comprar o hacer. Viejo describe algo que tienes desde hace mucho tiempo.” Next, the teacher calls on students to show “el libro nuevo y el libro viejo.” Finally, the teacher observes as students, “hablan sobre los libros nuevos y viejos.” This strategy supports students' vocabulary development as they use new words in context and provides child-friendly definitions. 

In Unidad 2, the teacher continues to use Squawker to introduce vocabulary, but also incorporates objects that represent those words. In this particular lesson, in order for students to have a better understanding and build a connection of what duro and suave mean, the teacher uses teddy bears (one soft and one hard) so students can feel the difference. This strategy uses objects to provide concrete and tangible opportunities to experience the new vocabulary in an age- and developmentally-appropriate way.

The materials allow students to interact with and use new vocabulary words in the context of the learning. For example, in Unidad 3, students have the opportunity to peel and cut a banana using a plastic knife, while learning the words pelar and cortar. Similar to the previous lesson from Unidad 2, this strategy supports children to learn the new words by using real objects in a fun and authentic activity. 

The materials do not provide teachers with guidance for accessing one language to build vocabulary in another. Strategies such as cognates or translanguaging are not present in the materials. Within the Spanish materials, the word inglés appears only once in Unidad 4. The teacher states, “P es para menta (peppermint, en inglés).” This statement is the only example of drawing on students’ prior knowledge in English while teaching in Spanish.

The materials guide teachers to discuss the meaning of words in Spanish only. For example, in Unidad 4, the teacher uses two vocabulary cards, avión and nubes while explaining the meaning of the words, using the stuffed puppet Squawker. The teacher explains the meaning in Spanish with no connection to English. Another lesson in this unit supports teachers with a variety of vocabulary words about the study of aviation. The materials include the vocabulary words aviación, ciencias, vuelo, volar, vivo, no vivo, piloto, aeropuerto. The teacher reads a book about airplanes or things that fly and then facilitates a discussion with the students on different terms related to planes and aeronautical scientists. The teacher states, “¿Qué trabajo estudia los vuelos? Un científico aeronáutico es alguien que aprende lo más que puede acerca de volar. Un piloto es una persona que vuela aviones.” The teacher uses the “Apoyo” section to strategically support students who may not grasp the lesson right away. These activities use strategies such as using content-related text, visuals, and discussion to model a variety of rich and rare vocabulary words.

Teacher guidance for meanings of words in Spanish is found in the “Lenguaje oral” section of the lessons. For example, in Unidad 6, the teacher uses Squawker and the “tarjetas de palabras” to introduce the words ballena and océano. The teacher begins by showing students the flashcards. The students follow along with Squawker as they repeat the definitions of the new words: “La ballena es el mamífero más grande que existe. Un océano es una masa de agua salada muy grande.” Although this activity supports expanding students' vocabulary in Spanish, the materials do not guide teachers to discuss the meaning of words in both English and Spanish.

Evaluation for 4.4
Materials include appropriate strategies for supporting students’ biliteracy development.

Evidence includes but is not limited to:

The usage of songs found throughout the materials allows for students to engage in repetitive phrases. The availability of these songs in both English and Spanish supports students in learning new words in both languages. The lyrics in songs such as “Counting, Counting” and “Cuento, Cuento” are the same in both languages, supporting English and Spanish proficiency. While these songs allow students to participate and develop their skills in both languages actively, the rest of the student activities, teacher resources, and research materials available in this curriculum do not support biliteracy development. 

The materials offer many supports for literacy development in Spanish; however, there are no cross-linguistic connections made with the English language. For example, in Unidad 2, students learn about the letter F and its sound. Next, students name the things they have seen in the past that start with that letter. Activities like this allow the teacher to leverage students’ prior knowledge to develop new concepts, thereby expanding vocabulary. These language development strategies can be found in a variety of subjects. The “Lenguaje oral” strategies are represented in the materials with a small speaking head icon and include an oral language objective to describe what the children should be able to do. For example, in a “Social Studies” lesson from Unidad 2, the students compare different countries’ sizes using the vocabulary words grande and pequeño. The lesson objective is for students to “utilizar el lenguaje para distintos propósitos, utilizar una variedad de palabras para etiquetar, y describir lugares.” This type of activity only supports the development of students’ Spanish language proficiency. 

The materials do not include comparisons of content vocabulary or structure in the two program languages. Rather than being a program that intertwines the two languages into one cohesive system, it is divided into the English curriculum and the Spanish curriculum. For example, none of the lessons or “Vocabulario” sections in Unidades 3 or 4 included references to English vocabulary connections. Students learn vocabulary in Spanish, thereby developing proficiency in only one language. Furthermore, there are no references to cognates to help leverage students’ prior knowledge in either language as an asset.

The materials provide opportunities for students to learn thematically-related terms in Spanish through discussions in the different content areas, for both small and whole group settings, as well as learning centers. The materials are organized into six themes corresponding to each of the units. For example, Unidad 4 has language development activities to learn separar y reciclar. The teacher uses Squawker, the puppet, to teach the students about separating trash from other recyclable items. Then students answer questions such as “¿Por qué haríamos eso?” and “¿Cómo podemos reciclar ropa?” This activity provides students with opportunities to learn and discuss Spanish vocabulary terms and supports students’ Spanish language development. This lesson and other activities do not include guidance on whether the teacher can accept an answer in either language when asking a question, and if so, how the teacher should respond and allow for opportunities to make a cross-linguistic connection. 

The materials provide teachers guidance on using prior knowledge as an asset to develop new concepts in the Spanish language; however, there is no evidence of this for the English language. In a Lenguaje oral lesson from Unidad 5, the students learn two new vocabulary words: empinado and nivelado. As part of the lesson, the teacher asks students to use their background knowledge of the concept being studied, “Qué otras formas hay de bajar por una colina empinada?” and “¿Qué otras cosas están niveladas?” The students respond to the teacher and also turn and talk to discuss their responses. However, the materials do not provide opportunities for the teacher to leverage students’ prior knowledge in another language to support learning.

Evaluation for 5.1
Materials provide opportunities for students to develop oral language skills, including through authentic text conversations.

Evidence includes but is not limited to:

The “Introducción al currículo” section of the “Get Set for School Guía para maestros de prekínder” includes interactive tips to use when conducting a read-aloud. Teachers express excitement when they read a book to the class, which motivates students to listen. Before reading, the teacher does a picture walk with the students and encourages them to make predictions. During the picture walk, the teacher asks two or three questions about each picture, so students can further discuss their ideas and thoughts. For example, the teacher asks, “¿Qué está sucediendo aquí?” After the students make predictions, the teacher begins the read-aloud. The guide also recommends revisiting students’ predictions and asking questions to confirm whether the predictions were correct. This sequence fits every book the teacher reads in class. The repetition of this process supports students in listening actively and engaging in discussions that further their understanding of the information in texts.

The Introducción al Currículo section also provides ideas for students to retell stories through creative arts, such as music, dramatic play, art, and food. For example, these ideas can be implemented through the book La oruga muy hambrienta by Eric Carle during whole group, small group, or centers to support oral language development. Through music, students use instruments to create music that helps others understand how the story made them feel. This activity would require the students to engage in discussions about why they chose that rhythm. Finger puppets in the “Dramatic Play” center would allow students to act out events in the correct sequence. Through art, students create drawings to retell the story. In addition to the artwork, they can record themselves telling the sequence of events based on their drawings. Another way that encourages students to use the correct sequence of events is with food. Students use real food items to retell the story of The Very Hungry Caterpillar. These activities provide students with consistent opportunities to engage in discussions that require sharing information and ideas about the texts.

The Get Set for School Guía para maestros de prekínder includes another section, “Lecciones y aprendizaje multisensorial,” which provides activities that support and guide students to work collaboratively by engaging in discussion. For example, during an “Oral Language” lesson in Unidad 1, students take turns when asking what each other’s names are. One student begins the conversation by saying, “¿Cómo te llamas? Me llamo....” Then the other student responds with an appropriate answer. Taking turns is a key part of having a successful dialogue; therefore, students work collaboratively to practice this skill during authentic peer conversations. 

The materials include open-ended questions to develop students' oral language skills. The teacher asks questions during read-alouds such as “What is happening?” “Tell me more about…” or “Why do you think that?” For example, during a “Lenguaje y alfabetización” lesson from Unidad 1, the teacher asks, “¿Qué crees que pasará en esta historia?” Asking this type of open-ended question prior to reading a story engages the students in a discussion about the text and helps them better understand the information they are about to hear. 

The materials provide opportunities for children to listen actively and engage in discussion to understand texts. For example, in a “Lenguaje y alfabetización” lesson from Unidad 2, the students make predictions about a text before it is read aloud. The teacher asks, “¿Cuáles son tus predicciones sobre lo que sucederá en esta historia?” The students make predictions, and the teacher asks students to justify their predictions. The teacher asks more questions to engage students in a discussion, such as “¿Qué predicen que sucederá?” and “¿Cambiaron sus predicciones?” The teacher stops once or twice during the lesson to see if any students want to change their predictions. This lesson provides consistent opportunities for students to listen actively and engage in discussions to understand the information in texts and draw predictions about stories and plots.

Students have consistent opportunities to engage in discussions that require them to share information and ideas about the texts. In Unidad 4, the teacher uses the “Tarjetas de historias” during a “Language and Literacy” lesson to help students generate a list of facts from the informational text Cultivando papayas. The students participate in a shared writing activity as they contribute what they know about papayas after hearing the story read aloud. Activities like this promote oral language development through authentic discussions related to texts read aloud.

The materials provide guidance and support for students to work collaboratively and engage in discussion. For example, in a “Lenguaje y alfabetización” lesson from Unidad 6, the teacher reads ¿Cómo comen los dinosaurios sus alimentos? by Jane Yolen. After the read-aloud, students work in small groups and discuss how to group dinosaurs according to their diet type. During the discussion, the students use words such as meat, plant, sharp, flat, and teeth. Not only does this activity provide an opportunity for students to work collaboratively, but also engage in discussion using new vocabulary.

Evaluation for 5.2
Materials provide direct (explicit) instruction and opportunities for student practice in phonological awareness skills.

Evidence includes but is not limited to:

The materials provide rich and varied playful opportunities to engage students in identifying, synthesizing, and analyzing sounds/symbols. Volume 1 of the “Teacher’s Guide” provides information about the different materials available to experience, manipulate, and interact with sounds, such as the “Caja Sound Around” and the “Line It Up” cards. Both of which include activities to develop phonological awareness. For example, the Line It Up cards have several pictures with the same initial sound that support children in hearing words that start with the same initial sound, and later they learn which letter corresponds to each one. Another activity involves filling the Caja Sound Around with “elementos conocidos cuyo sonido inicial sea el que estás enseñando.” Activities such as this are engaging and help students to identify sounds.

There is very limited evidence in the materials that incorporates the specific characteristics of Spanish phonics or its implications when teaching phonological awareness. The vowels should be introduced first, followed by consonants. In Spanish, children start forming words with syllables as they learn consonants. Unfortunately, the materials do not consider this sequence or its implications when teaching phonological awareness. Given that the pronunciation of a word is phonetically regular in Spanish, the recognition of syllable units has less of a focus in the curriculum than single phonemes. While the “Lenguaje y alfabetización” lessons implement plenty of opportunities for students to practice the identification of syllables, this mostly takes place in the last three units of the curriculum. This specific skill should appear from the very beginning as it is one of the most basic skills Spanish-speaking students need to learn.

Phonological awareness activities start out by focusing on hearing the sounds rather than connecting sounds to print, following a research-based developmental continuum of how children acquire phonological awareness. In a Lenguaje y alfabetización lesson from Unidad 1, the teacher tells the students they will pretend to be detectives. The objective is for students to detect or distinguish if sounds are the same or different. The sounds are from their environment and not necessarily alphabet related, which lays the foundation for the listening skills needed to distinguish sounds. This structure follows the research-based developmental continuum of how children acquire phonological awareness by teaching sounds first without the use of print. Once letter knowledge begins to develop, children benefit from the inclusion of letters in phonological awareness activities later in the curriculum.

The materials provide guidance to teachers for setting up learning experiences to engage students in identifying, synthesizing, and analyzing sounds. For example, in a Lenguaje y alfabetización lesson from Unidad 1, the teacher plays the song “Ajetreo” and students identify sounds. This activity requires students to discriminate environmental sounds from speaking sounds. The teacher asks, “¿Qué sonidos escucharon? ¿De dónde venían esos sonidos?” The students respond and then practice imitating the sounds from the song. This activity engages students in identifying sounds.

According to the Texas Prekindergarten Guidelines, the materials introduce skills in a way that follows the Spanish phonological awareness continuum. There are many opportunities to practice all the skills in the continuum, beginning with rhyming and sentence segmenting followed by syllable and onset-rime blending/segmenting in later units. For example, in Unidad 4, the teacher leads the students in a syllable segmentation activity. The teacher explains: “Las partes pequeñas de una palabra se llaman sílabas. Nombremos imágenes y aplaudamos por cada parte de las palabras.” The students separate words such as rosa into syllables (ro-sa). Educators can also find all the phonological awareness activities found in the curriculum in the “Índice” of Volume 2.

Evaluation for 5.3
Materials provide direct (explicit) instruction and opportunities for student practice in alphabetic knowledge skills.

Evidence includes but is not limited to:

The materials do not follow a research-based, strategic sequence for the introduction of alphabetic knowledge of Spanish. According to information from the Texas Reading Academies, the progression of Spanish alphabetic knowledge “begin(s) with the consonants that are more useful in generating and decoding Spanish words (e.g., m, n, b, p, s, l, d, t, and f).” In addition, “consonants should be taught in combination with vowels for immediate application to syllable reading.” However, the letter sequence provided in the introduction section of the “Get Set for School Guía para maestros de prekínder” does not introduce the letter L until Week 6 and the letter M until Week 25. The materials do not include instruction of the letter Ññ; therefore, the materials do not follow a research-based, strategic sequence for the introduction of alphabetic knowledge in Spanish. 

The Spanish alphabetic knowledge progression is learning vowel sounds, making distinctions between strong and weak vowels, learning consonant sounds, and matching vowels with consonants to form syllables (Beeman and Urow, 2012; Honig, 2013; Calzadilla Perez, 2012; Dehaene, 2019). The materials do not start with vowel sounds; instead, they start with the letters L, F, E, H, and T. Students are not introduced to all the vowels until Week 24 out of 36 total instructional weeks. Therefore, the materials do not follow a research-based, strategic sequence for the introduction of Spanish alphabetic knowledge.

The materials do not provide teacher guidance on directly introducing, modeling, and using digraphs. The five Spanish digraphs are ch, ll, gu, qu, and rr. The only information the materials provide regarding digraphs is for the ch and ll. The “Resources” section from the “Teacher’s Guide,” Volume 1, states that “there were many challenges to the inclusion of ch and ll. The conclusion of the Spanish Royal Academy in 2010 was that ch and ll are digraphs and not alphabet letters.” These digraphs are not included in the lessons, and teachers do not have the guidance they need to introduce or model using these five Spanish digraphs.

Although digraphs are not included, the materials do provide rich and varied playful opportunities to experience, manipulate, and interact with letters. One of the teacher-led activities that supports this practice is “Camino de letras,” from the introductory section of the Get Set for School Guía para maestros de prekínder. The teacher shows “una tarjeta de letras y luego escribe letras mayúsculas en cartulina.” The teacher lays the letter cards down on the floor, and students name each letter to continue on the path. This activity provides students with opportunities to practice using letter names as they move throughout the classroom. 

The materials provide teacher guidance on directly introducing, modeling, and using letter names and sounds. For example, in a “Lenguaje y alfabetización” lesson from Unidad 2, students learn the letter E and its sound. The materials state, “Muestra la tarjeta de la letra E. Presenta la letra E y su sonido.” After the teacher presents and models the letter, students identify the letter E from three other letters, using the sentence stem provided. Finally, students trace the letter E with their fingers. The materials provide explicit teacher guidance to introduce, model, and use letter names and sounds. 

The curriculum primarily focuses on one letter each week. The review of other letters throughout the scope of the school year mainly takes place during the center activities the teacher decides to implement each week. For example, even though C is the letter for week 13 in Unidad 3, the teacher uses activities such as the “Line It Up” cards to review other letters previously introduced. The teacher shows the students one of the Line It Up cards, and students find the matching letter in their alphabet cereal. Activities like this give students multiple and ongoing opportunities to have targeted experiences with the letters.

The materials embed movement-based activities to support student understanding of letters and sounds. Many lessons use the “Canción del alfabeto“ to practice the letters. For example, a lesson from Unidad 4 provides teacher guidance in the “Introducción multisensorial” section. The materials state, “Canta y señala al ritmo de la Canción del alfabeto.” After the students sing the alphabet song, the teacher leads the students in a review of the letters c, o, s, v, w, a, and d. The students each get a card with one of those letters. The teacher calls out a letter, and if the students have that letter, they pass under the limbo ribbon. The teacher monitors to ensure students correctly match the letter called. This lesson provides teacher guidance on direct introduction, modeling, and using letter names through music and movement. 

In Unidad 6, students work with letters to identify and compare their characteristics, including sounds. The teacher specifically reviews Cc, Oo, Ss, Vv, and Ww and describes the difference between uppercase and lowercase letters. The teacher states: “La letras mayúsculas son todas del mismo tamaño. Las letras minúsculas pueden tener diferentes tamaños: Pequeñas, altas, o descendentes.” The students manipulate magnetic letters by separating them into capital and lowercase letters, and they name all the letter names and sounds. Direct explanation and developmentally appropriate manipulatives support students in learning their letter names and sounds.

Evaluation for 5.4
Materials provide direct (explicit) instruction in print knowledge and concepts and opportunities for student practice.

Evidence includes but is not limited to:

The “Introducción al currículo” section of the “Get Set for School Guía para maestros de prekínder” recommends labeling objects around the classroom such as cubicles with the names of students, which helps them identify their belongings as part of their daily routines. In addition, the information suggests labeling learning areas, school supplies containers, and curricular student books. This labeling not only creates an environment that allows students to self-direct their learning, but also connects print awareness to their daily lives. The constant exposure to letters and words helps them make connections to how written language carries meaning. 

Materials include opportunities for students to develop an understanding of the everyday functions of print in context to the students’ experience at school. In the “Actividades dirigidas por el maestro” section of the Get Set for School Guía para maestros de prekínder, the materials guide teachers to use a wall chart to review the letters of the alphabet with students. The materials state “Canta la ‘Canción del alfabeto’ lentamente mientras señalas las letras minúsculas...puedes usar un gráfico de pared o las tarjetas A-B-C Touch and Flip Cards.” The use of a wall chart provides opportunities for students to develop their letter knowledge within a print-rich environment. 

The activities follow a developmentally appropriate continuum to teach print awareness skills explicitly. The activities engage children in learning that becomes more complex as their knowledge increases. For example, a “Lenguaje y alfabetización” lesson from Unidad 1 focuses on “distinguir letras, palabras, y oraciones.” The teacher introduces the letter L, with examples of it being used in a word, sentence, and on its own, as a letter. Next, the students sort paper strips with letters, words, and sentences into groups while the teacher observes for understanding. Later in Unidad 3, the materials include “tarjetas de palabras: construir/disfrazar,” which serve as an anchor for print awareness, when used in the lesson. The teacher gives definitions and students construct a block tower and put on a costume to connect the definition to a real-world example. All of this ties back to ensuring students understand the objective, “comprender que la escritura tiene significado.”

The sequence for introduction includes reviewing print awareness concepts throughout the scope of the school year. Lessons at the beginning of the year focus on identifying letters. For example, in a Lenguaje y alfabetización lesson from Unidad 2, students practice recognizing capital letters. The teacher puts the “tarjetas de letras: E, F, L” on the floor, and students take turns picking up the letters and showing them to the class, “con el lado correcto hacia arriba.” Lessons later in the year support identifying words in a book or focus on talking about appropriate use of punctuation, which is supported by the Texas Prekindergarten Guidelines. According to the Texas Prekindergarten Guidelines, print concepts start with distinguishing between elements of print, understanding print directionality, and identifying conventional features of print that communicate meaning such as punctuation and case.

Materials provide direct instruction in print awareness and connect print awareness to books. For example, in a Lenguaje y alfabetización lesson from Unidad 3, the teacher reviews the letter C and its sound, then reads aloud the book Pete el gato and His Four Groovy Buttons. The teacher asks students to stand up with every word they hear in various sentences. The lesson states, “Haz que cinco niños se sienten en fila. Lee una oración sencilla.” The teacher states, “Voy a leer una oración. Cuando te señale, ponte de pie.” While repeating each word from the sentence, the teacher points to each student to stand up when it is their turn. This activity provides direct print awareness instruction connected to text in an interactive and developmentally appropriate way. 

A “Social Studies” lesson in Unidad 5 includes an activity where students identify the letter X in environmental print. The teacher shows pictures of different crossing signs. Students find the X in each picture and share what it means in each sign (e.g., animal crossing, train crossing). This lesson provides students the opportunity to recognize that print has meaning and develops an understanding of print’s everyday functions in context. This type of activity is so valuable that it could be included on a more consistent basis throughout the curriculum to give students more opportunities to use logos and signs they see in their daily lives to develop literacy skills.

Evaluation for 5.5
Materials include a variety of text types and genres across contents that are high-quality and at an appropriate level of complexity.

Evidence includes but is not limited to:

The materials include books with storylines and characters that are easy to understand and are at the appropriate level of complexity for children’s developmental level. For example, Llaman a la puerta by Pat Hutchins and Mis cinco sentidos by Aliki are titles in the “Biblioteca de Get Set for School” curriculum library list. They are of an appropriate level of complexity for a prekindergarten classroom. This section also includes titles such as La oruga muy hambrienta by Eric Carle and Ricitos de oro y los tres osos by Valerie Gorbachev, both including highly predictable storylines. 

The materials include multiple genres of text, including both fiction and nonfiction texts. The Biblioteca de Get Set for School includes fiction books such as Llaman a la puerta by Pat Hutchins, María tenía una llamita by Ángela Domínguez, and Olivia by Ian Falconer. Nonfiction texts include Las mascotas by Sindy McKay, Mis cinco sentidos by Aliki, and ¿Por qué debo reciclar? by Jen Green. The materials also include a variety of classic children’s literature, early childhood favorites, and popular current titles such as El Gato Ensombrerado by Dr. Seuss and Los Tres Cerditos by Eric Litwin. All of these titles are included as part of the classroom library and are sometimes referenced in more than one lesson in the curriculum.

The materials include a variety of songs but are lacking in poetry and nursery rhymes. For example, Pio Peep: Traditional Spanish Nursery Rhymes by Alma Flor Ada and Isabel Campoy is a suggested title listed in the curriculum but does not actually come with the materials. This book includes a collection of traditional Spanish nursery rhymes and poems and would be highly beneficial to include in a bilingual curriculum. Although there are limited poetry and nursery rhymes, there are a variety of songs available in the instructional materials through the Sing, Sound and Count With Me and Get Set for School Sing Along albums. However, there are only a few songs with words in Spanish to accompany the musical track and the majority of the songs are the instrumental version. Therefore, teachers are left to figure out where the words are for these tracks in Spanish.

The texts in the materials cover a variety of topics pre-k children would find interesting. The topics are related to the themes presented in the curriculum, including “ocupaciones, naturaleza, animales, formas, letras, y cuidado del medioambiente.” For example, the classroom library includes books about animals such as María tenía una llamita by Ángela Domínguez, El Abece visual de los animales salvajes by Marisa Do Brito Barrote, La oruga muy hambrienta by Eric Carle, and Mascotas by Sindy McKay. Other themes include weather with texts such as Lluvia by Carol Thompson and El tiempo by Kristin Baird Rattini. 

The materials include some use of environmental print throughout the classroom. The “Introducción” section of the Get Set for School Guía para maestros de prekínder suggests creating the vocabulary cards then leaving them visible and available for students. This environmental print is designed to “facilitar la lectura y mejorar el entendimiento con ilustraciones coloridas.” This information provides guidance to include opportunities for students to use environmental print in the classroom.

The texts incorporate engaging content that includes opportunities for students to interact with the stories. In Unidad 1, the book Llaman a la puerta is part of a math lesson where students count people in the book. The teacher reads the book aloud and pauses for the children to count every time a friend arrives in the story. The lesson supports more than one content area. The lesson supports reading skills as the teacher models reading practices and math skills as students engage in a repetitive activity with counting. In addition, in Unidad 3, the teacher uses the book El hombre de pan de jengibre to introduce the math objective of dividing one object into two equal pieces. After the whole group read-aloud, the students pair up and discuss how they will cut a gingerbread man cookie to ensure each person gets an equal part. Using this text along with the math activity supports the objective while increasing student engagement and interaction in order to complete a developmentally appropriate task.

 In Unidad 6, students learn to recognize their own names as well as those of their classmates. The teacher sings the song “Estoy feliz de verte” as the students sit in a circle and tap their knees or clap to the song’s beat. The students take turns standing up during the song when the teacher holds up a name card with each of their names. After the song, the teacher says “Libba, Libba inicia con MAYÚSCULA y se deletrea L-I-B-B-A, Libba,” while spelling the student’s name and pointing to each letter. This activity supports children’s literacy development as they are actively engaged in print that is very meaningful to them. This lesson strategically uses a song to reinforce skill development; however, only a few songs with words are provided in Spanish.

Evaluation for 5.6
Materials use a variety of approaches to develop students’ comprehension of text read aloud.

Evidence includes but is not limited to:

The materials guide teachers to connect books to children’s experiences at home and school. For example, the “Recursos” section of the “Get Set for School Guía para maestros de prekínder” includes suggestions for teachers to involve the families in promoting a love for reading. The materials suggest assigning specific weeks for students to bring books from home or the local library to share in class. Materials recommend that teachers share reading strategies to implement at home. Additionally, the curriculum stresses the importance of recommending families practice their first language at home, supporting second language acquisition. This information supports teachers in helping children bring their experiences to the classroom and make personal connections to texts.

Volume 1 of the “Teacher’s Guide” includes activities that support comprehension of texts read aloud, such as “Line It Up.” This section directs the teacher to have the children retell stories, color pictures, and explore letters. The story cards use pictures to help students retell a story by identifying the beginning, middle, and end. The materials state,“Las tarjetas de historias incluyen imágenes que se usan para enseñar la introducción, el medio y al final de cinco historias diferentes.” This section provides guidance for the teacher on basic text structures and their impact on understanding the text.

The materials guide teachers to use books with basic text structures to support children in making predictions and understanding a text. For example, in a “Lenguaje y alfabetización” lesson from Unidad 1, the objective is to make predictions about the book Mat Man A Pasear. Students make predictions before and during the read-aloud. The teacher states: “Voy a leer un libro. Antes de leerlo, vamos a predecir lo que pasará.” After beginning to read aloud, the teacher stops one or two more times to allow students to make new predictions or confirm previous ones based on what really happened in the story. This lesson provides guidance for the teacher to use basic text structures to support understanding the text. 

The materials provide teachers with scaffolding questions for students to support comprehension; however, there is no evidence in the materials that the level of complexity in the questions corresponds to a variety of language proficiency levels. For example, in the same Lenguaje y alfabetización lesson from Unidad 1, the teacher asks various prompting questions about the book. Some of the questions are open-ended, such as “¿Qué predicen que pasará en esta historia?” Others are closed-ended, such as “¿Qué ven en esta imagen?” Although the lesson incorporates varying questions, there is no correlation to a variety of language proficiency levels.

The materials include suggestions for classroom experiences that help children make connections to texts. For example, an “Estudios sociales” lesson from Unidad 3 includes a read-aloud about costumes. The teacher asks open-ended questions, such as “Si fueran diseñadores, ¿qué tipo de disfraces querrían hacer?” Afterward, the students create their own costumes. This lesson provides suggestions for teachers to provide children with classroom experiences that connect to books.

Some lessons include a read-aloud but do not offer opportunities to scaffold questions in order to comprehend the text. For example, in a science lesson from Unidad 4, the teacher reads a book about rain, but there are no questions included. The teacher states: “Los meteorólogos estudian fenómenos del tiempo, como la lluvia…. La lluvia se produce cuando las nubes se llenan de mucha agua.” The teacher continues to explain the experiment they are going to conduct. The lesson script helps teachers explain how clouds work; however, it lacks the implementation of scaffolded questions for students at a variety of language proficiency levels.

Evaluation for 5.7
Materials include appropriate strategies for supporting English Learners (ELs) in their development of emergent reading skills.

Evidence includes but is not limited to:

The materials provide some teacher guidance in the “Apoyo a estudiantes aprendices de inglés como segunda lengua (ELL)” section to support ELs in their development of emergent reading skills. There is no evidence that the materials provide opportunities for students to make cross-linguistic connections. The lessons do not have information about connections between each language, nor do they include lessons explicitly teaching the similarities between both languages. 

Since the curriculum does not provide opportunities for students to make cross-linguistic connections, there are no possibilities for students to bridge their prior knowledge in their first language to English skills. In a lesson from Unidad 2, the objective is for students to identify words that rhyme. Once a student understands the concept of rhyming, they can leverage this skill in the second language. Unfortunately, the curriculum does not support these types of connections between languages. Furthermore, according to the Texas Prekindergarten Guidelines (2015), “ESL children draw upon their phonological awareness skills in their first language when developing phonological awareness in a second language.” The curriculum only attempts to support this practice in one lesson from Unidad 4, which focuses on the letter P. In the “Enriquecimiento” section, the teacher makes the following cross-linguistic connection: “P es para menta (peppermint, en inglés).” However, this is not an accurate connection, given that peppermint and menta do not start with the same letter or sound. 

The materials include information about transadaptation in the “Research Review.” Although some of the books of the classroom library are bilingual, such as The Gingerbread Man, Bilingual Edition by Catherine McCafferty, there is no reference to cross-linguistic connections in the lessons. The same is true with the “A-B-C Touch and Flip cards” and “Line It Up Story” cards. The letter sounds or stories addressed in the lessons are either in English or Spanish, with no opportunities for students to make cross-linguistic connections.

There is some evidence that the materials guide teachers to leverage the student’s knowledge of literacy in English or Spanish as an asset. “Get Set for School®: A Complete Pre-K Program for Kindergarten Readiness Success” includes information about “Get Set for School Spanish” as an “opportunity for students to think, speak, and learn in their home language.” The materials provide guidance for the teacher to leverage students’ home language in the Apoyo a estudiantes aprendices de inglés como segunda lengua (ELL). The materials state, “Recita el alfabeto y enseña los nombres de las letras en inglés y el idioma del hogar cuando sea posible.” This practice is not addressed in the actual lessons. The materials guide the teacher to create their own “tarjetas de palabras para representar los otros idiomas presentes en su clase e incluya imágenes o dibujos para representar el significado de la palabra.” The materials are limited in the guidance provided to leverage students' literacy in each language as an asset. The “Recursos Adicionales” section of the Apoyo a estudiantes aprendices de inglés como segunda lengua (ELL) lists different websites, such as Colorin Colorado and WIDA, both of which are well known for their materials and support of second language learners.

Also in Apoyo a estudiantes aprendices de inglés como segunda lengua (ELL), teacher guidance is provided in the section labeled “Preparación para lecciones usando el idioma del hogar.” The teacher is directed: “Investiga e incorpora palabras de vocabulario específico en los diferentes idiomas representados en tu clase.” The materials state that all the materials the teacher needs to present the vocabulary in the classroom languages can be found in the curriculum: “Todos los recursos de herramientas disponibles en inglés están disponibles en español, tales como aplicaciones y recursos de enseñanza digital en espanol, lectura en voz alta digital de Mat Man en espanol y libros de actividades multisensoriales en espanol.” Not all materials listed in this section are in Spanish. 

The materials include teacher guidance for using cognates to support cross-linguistic connections. In the section “Enseñanza de cognados: uniendo el inglés y el español,” the materials highlight the fact that 40% of words in English are Spanish cognates. The section guides the teacher to use cognates as a starting point for learning the English language for students in the class. Materials give cognate examples such as family/familia, activities/actividades, artist/artista. However, the materials do not include teacher guidance or instruction in the lessons for this cross-linguistic strategy.

Get Set for School: A Complete Pre-K Program for Kindergarten Readiness Success states that “Spanish language read-alouds offer transadaptation through language-rich books, helping students build knowledge in their home language.” While there are a few bilingual titles, such as Bilingual Tales: Los tres cerditos/The Three Little Pigs, there is no indication of strategies, activities, or lessons that support the implementation of these books. The book itself does an excellent job as a transadaptation, but this is not relevant if it is not utilized as an asset during reading instruction. A science lesson from Unidad 5 references this title as a way to explore natural resources by discussing which ones the three little pigs used to build each of their homes.

Evaluation for 6.1
Materials include a variety of experiences through which students can engage with writing.

The evidence from the English materials in this report can be verified in full within the translated Spanish materials.

Evidence includes but is not limited to: 

In Unit 1, students learn how to build letters using wooden pieces. The teacher shares the wooden pieces with the whole group. Students explore the pieces by looking at similarities and differences in size and shape. The next day, the students dance and sing the “Wood Piece Pokey,” which helps the students name each piece (“Little Line, Big Line, Little Curve, Big Curve”). After the song, the teacher guides a conversation with the students about the names of each wooden piece while students hold the pieces. The following week, for four days, the students build “Mat Man” with wooden pieces for the head, arms, legs, and feet. On the fifth day, the teacher models how to draw a Mat Man one step at a time while the students repeat after every step. The instructional materials provide direct writing instruction on letter formation and drawing, but there are no opportunities for children to imitate adult writing in authentic ways. The activities also do not provide or lead to independent writing opportunities or provide shared writing opportunities. Although activities introduce letters with the wooden pieces and Mat Man, these activities do not transfer to writing opportunities. The materials also do not guide teachers to conference with children to support the writing process. In addition, in Unit 1, there are no opportunities to write in response to reading or make explicit the connection between reading and writing.

During a week in Unit 4, the writing lessons focus on teaching the formation of the letter P. The materials follow a similar format to other units: The week begins with the teacher using wood pieces to build P. The teacher says, “Watch as I build P. Big Line down, Jump to the smiley face, Little Curve to the middle. We made P.” Then, children imitate the model and build P on their own mat. The writing lessons that follow include using the “Roll-A-Dough” letters to build P; using the “Stamp and See Screen” to stamp or write P; using the “Wet-Dry-Try Slate” to practice forming the letter P with a variety of materials; and finally learning P through tracing, coloring, and drawing in “My First School Book P.” Some math lessons include instruction on writing with regard to forming numbers; for example, using “I Know My Numbers Booklet 8,” children trace the number 8 and practice writing the numeral. These are all direct and explicit lessons on writing and letter formation, but they do not provide authentic opportunities to teach writing. The lessons in Unit 4 include teacher modeling and explicit instruction, with children then imitating and practicing on their own, but the lessons do not support independent writing activities. The materials do not provide specific opportunities for group writing on shared experiences throughout the unit. Unit 4 does contain one example of drawing to transfer to writing during a science lesson on plant life cycles. After reading The Tiny Seed by Eric Carle or another book about the plant life cycle, children create art that shows the plant’s life cycle. The materials review the five steps in the life cycle for the teacher to use to prompt children when they make their art. This activity is one opportunity for drawing in detail, which transfers to writing, but the activity does not provide other opportunities for children to write in response to reading.

Unit 6 focuses on developing correct habits for writing lowercase r. Children learn how to trace and copy lowercase r using multisensory magnetic blackboard sets. Students use the first lowercase book to finger-trace and name the image. Then they trace and copy r with their pencil and say, “Dive down, swim up, and over.” Although there are specific directions on letter formation in the activity, there are no extensions or guidance to support children in imitating adult writing. The lesson on the letter r is implemented in small and large group settings. The guidance supports teacher instruction during these activities, but there are no opportunities for independent writing. Materials do not include opportunities for group writing on shared experiences or opportunities for illustrations/drawing with details, which would transfer to writing. Unit 6 also lacks opportunities to write in response to reading; it does not explicitly link reading and writing.

Evaluation for 6.2
Materials instruct students along the developmental stages of writing.

The evidence from the English materials in this report can be verified in full within the translated Spanish materials.

Evidence includes but is not limited to: 

The “Teacher’s Guide” provides the teacher guidance on some writing skills but does not address developmental stages. For example, there is information on how to write capital letters based on specific ages. The process starts with recognition; top-to-bottom, left-to-right directionality; top start for letters; correct letter formation; and letter orientation. There is a visual showing how students who are up to three years old focus on horizontal and vertical lines; students up to four years old focus on circles and plus signs; students up to six years old focus on squares and triangles for writing. The materials focus on handwriting strategies and coloring rather than writing through a sequence of developmental writing stages. The materials recognize that children develop writing skills at different rates when writing letters, but they do not guide teachers to ensure that children recognize that writing has a purpose and that print is meaningful. In “My First School Book,” students learn to write capital letters in a developmentally appropriate order: vertical and horizontal letters, “Magic C,” “Big and Little Curves,” and then “Diagonals.” In “My First Lowercase Book,” the first set of lowercase letters have the same formation as their capital counterparts, and then they “continue to learn lowercase letters based on similar formations and frequency of use.” 

During a week in Unit 2, children learn about the letter F through multiple activities. Children begin the week building the letter F with wood pieces on the mat, using words for each step: “Big Line down. Jump to the smiley face. Little line across the top. Little Line across the middle.” The teacher models before children build on their own, following the “My Turn, Your Turn” instructional model. The following day, they move to stamping the letter F on the “Stamp and See Screen.” When using the Stamp and See Screen, children can stamp the lines of the F with magnetic pieces or write with the magnetic chalk stylus. In a follow-up lesson, the teacher models writing F with chalk on a slate chalkboard. Everyone uses a little sponge cube to trace the letter, a piece of paper towel to dry the letter, and then a chalk bit to write the letter. Finally, children get out their copy of “My First School Book F.” Children finger trace F and use a crayon to trace the letter, repeating the instructions they learned earlier in the week. Additionally, children review writing their names in small groups. First, they finger trace the letters of their name using the tactile side of letter cards. Then, using “Capital Practice Strips,” the teacher models writing each letter, and students imitate it on their own. This process helps children learn how to form capital letters with repetition; there are multiple opportunities to see the writing modeled for them; students write in different modalities. There are limited opportunities for authentic writing through the week of building letters, writing on different materials, and practicing tracing and writing. All writing is focused on letter formation. Guidance for struggling writers mainly focuses on grip, with few specific suggestions for teachers to nudge children along the writing continuum successfully. “Readiness and Writing” lessons focus primarily on letter formation, not on the writing process or taking an idea and using it to inspire writing. There are some opportunities for writing practice in “Language and Literacy” lessons, as well as integrated cross-curricularly into other areas and subjects. Additionally, some “Line It Up Story Cards” ask students to complete writing tasks. In the “Growing Pumpkins” card, students generate a fourth story card to share their ideas. While students are primarily drawing, the teacher writes as children dictate, showing them that their spoken word can turn into print. Teachers work with children one-on-one to add text to their illustrations. Similar activities can be found in the story cards for “Isabel’s Birthday,” “LIttle Miss Muffet,” and “Ready for Robin.” While students create a butterfly journal in the “How a Butterfly Grows” card, there is less connection to the writing progress in this card than the other four cards. The directions state: “Invite different children to draw the habitat each day. Label their pictures with the life cycle stages or body parts. Welcome questions. Track class questions and answers in the journal.” This activity is actually framed as an “Explore Science” activity. While contributing to writing instruction, there are only five Line It Up Story Cards in total. They are integrated a few times into the scope and sequence and do not ensure teachers include appropriate student contributions to writing and the writing process.

By Unit 6, children have learned their uppercase letters. The objectives for Readiness and Writing lessons change to “develop correct habits for writing lowercase letters,” and there is a different focus letter each day of the week. Each lesson follows the exact same format throughout all units, no matter the letter of focus. The teacher begins with a “Multisensory” introduction, using the magnetic lowercase and blackboard set to review the size of J versus j. Using the “Wet-Dry-Try,” the teacher demonstrates j. Each child in the group gets an opportunity to try with the blackboard. Then, using “My First Lowercase Book,” children finger trace Jj and name the pictures on the page. Children trace and copy j with a pencil, saying the directions “Down, Turn, Dot.” The teacher reads the sentence on the page aloud, “J is for jeans.” Children trace Jj with a pencil and then color the picture and add detail. There are two different opportunities for teacher modeling of writing, but these opportunities do not explain how to differentiate based on students’ developmental stages of writing. The “Check For Understanding” guides teachers to observe as the children trace and copy letters and to make sure they start letters correctly. Beyond this general guidance, teachers do not consistently receive letter-specific or activity-specific guidance to identify malformed or mis-started letters or explanations for how to fix these mistakes. The lessons in Unit 6 are primarily focused on tracing and writing lowercase letters correctly. There is limited authentic writing, opportunities for dictation, or the creation of authentic writing experiences.

Evaluation for 6.3
Materials support fine motor development alongside and through writing.

The evidence from the English materials in this report can be verified in full within the translated Spanish materials.

Evidence includes but is not limited to: 

In the Unit 1 “Trace the Strokes” lesson, students trace vertical and horizontal strokes to support fine motor development. Students learn to hold a tool with a proper grip to write and a helping hand to stabilize the paper. In the lesson, students finger trace the post going down and the rails going across on the picture. Finally, students use the flip crayon to trace/draw and color the picture. The “Teacher's Guide” introduction provides information on teaching grip through this activity. It suggests there are two types of grips: standard and alternate. This lesson uses the little crayon, which encourages fine motor development: “When students flip the crayon, they use in-hand manipulation skills, which lead to improved coordination.” The activity provides support for differentiation and uses different tools to support fine motor development. 

In Unit 3, students learn to write the letter C using a “Wet-Dry-Try” slate. In the lesson, students develop a correct pinch grasp, hold a tool with proper grip to write, and use the helping hand to stabilize the object. When students receive the slate, a letter C is there as a model for students to trace. The teacher then demonstrates letter C formation. As the teacher is demonstrating, the teacher is also saying the words for each step (e.g., “big curve”). For the remaining portion of the lesson, the teacher models and students follow: Wet (child uses a little sponge cube to trace the letter); Dry (child uses a little piece of paper towel to dry the letter); Try (child uses a little chalk bit to write the letter). During the lesson, students focus on the fine motor skills of pinch and grasp and gripping as they use the sponge, paper towel, and chalk. Also, in the lesson, the teacher models for students how to form a letter C using the little sponge, the little piece of paper towel, and the little chalk. The activity provides students with multiple tools and surfaces to practice writing and provides support for the teacher to guide and differentiate writing instruction. 

In Unit 6, children learn to write on double lines and to write the lowercase letters c, o, s, v, and w using different tools. When teaching children how to develop correct habits for writing on double lines, the teacher uses the magnetic lowercase and blackboard set to introduce the placement of lowercase letters. The teacher then uses “My First Lowercase Book” to show children that some letters are small; children finger trace the little lines. Children trace the small lines with a pencil, then the tall lines, then the descending lines. There are hand motions for each type of line. The following days are focused on specific lowercase letters. When teaching a lowercase letter, the teacher uses Wet-Dry-Try with students before they get out their My First Lowercase Book to finger trace, then trace the letters and the sentence on each page. In the unit, there is guidance within “Readiness and Writing” lessons for support/English Learners or those with specific needs. These include practicing capital Cc on the blackboard for students before copying and tracing only lowercase c; finger tracing the magnetic letter before copying and tracing o; using chairs to create curves and having children walk the curves to practice changing directions, like when writing the letter s; and reviewing the capital W and V on the Wet-Dry-Try slate. While there is not a variety of differentiation, these suggestions help children with letter formation specifically. 

Evaluation for 7.1
Materials follow a logical mathematical continuum of concrete, pictorial, then abstract representations.

The evidence from the English materials in this report can be verified in full within the transadaptated and translated Spanish materials.

Evidence includes but is not limited to: 

The materials across all units focus on five mathematical competencies: “Numbers and Operations,” “Geometry,” “Patterns and Algebra,” “Measurement and Time,” and “Data Representation and Probability.” These competencies are spread out through the “Scope and Sequence” of the materials, with the first few weeks focused on exploring math through the various manipulatives included with the materials. The following weeks include concrete lessons on math concepts. Children may learn multiple concepts in one week, and concepts are taught multiple times. Almost every math activity includes using some type of manipulative, starting with concrete, hands-on activities that progress to pictorial representation at a later stage through materials such as number cards. The materials include multiple concrete manipulatives to use while teaching mathematical concepts and to enhance lessons across the materials. Math manipulatives included with the materials are “1-2-3 Touch and Flip Cards” that help with number naming, one-to-one correspondence, and number formation; “Mix and Make Shapes” that teach geometry; “4 Squares, More Squares” that help teach geometry, spatial awareness, counting, matching, pattern making, and graphing; and “Tag Bags” that help teach counting, sorting, and measuring. These materials are utilized across units to reinforce mathematical concepts through a variety of lessons and support conceptual understanding of mathematical competencies aligned to the Texas Prekindergarten Guidelines. 

In a Unit 1 lesson, “Learn 1 and Develop Correct Habits for Writing 1,” students learn to recognize and write the number 1 across activities that progress from concrete to pictorial to abstract, using concrete manipulatives. Students begin with concrete manipulatives, counting 1 using their bodies. Students hold up one finger and count down the center (e.g., “one head, one forehead, one nose, one mouth”). Next, students count one object using different manipulatives. As students are counting one object, they also engage in one-to-one correspondence: “One crayon in one hand; one block in one cup; one cap on one bottle.” Students then trace and write the number 1. Students begin by finger tracing the number 1, followed by writing the number using a crayon. Finally, students color and draw the number 1. The given coloring sheet shows how to write the number 1, a picture of one caterpillar, a picture of the representation of 1 (one finger), and more tracings of number 1. This lesson encompasses each mathematical competency (concrete, pictorial, and abstract). The activities in Unit 1 provide support to build conceptual understanding in counting. During this unit, students also learn additional math concepts aligned with the Texas Prekindergarten Guidelines. In one activity, students learn about geometry by identifying, describing, and making squares through a variety of activities. The students begin by singing the “Shape Song,” while the teacher shows and describes a big square. Students then receive squares to explore through touch. Later, students receive a whole square manipulative to identify and describe. The next day, students use the “My First School Book” to trace and draw squares using straight lines. 

In Unit 4, a lesson sequence focuses on growing patterns that include concrete manipulatives and pictorial representations. During the “Numbers and Math” lesson on Monday, the teacher uses the 4 Squares, More Squares manipulatives to grow a pattern. Children have a turn growing the pattern with teacher support. The following day’s math lesson moves from manipulative learning to real-world exploration. The teacher says, “Now, let’s look for patterns on the butterflies. Do you see any stripes? What colors do you see?” Children describe the butterfly patterns and then create a tissue paper butterfly from the patterns they saw. This lesson sequence goes from concrete pattern building with manipulatives to pictorial representation when children identify and create butterfly wing patterns. During other weeks and units, materials use other manipulatives to teach patterns.

In Unit 5, children explore, recognize, and add numbers. Students use six red and four green Tag Bags to add numbers, while the teacher guides and asks students to identify the quantity of each color. Students continue to practice “counting on” from 1 to 20, using blocks, Tag Bags, and square pieces throughout the lesson. Later, they use Touch and Flip cards that contain a picture of tiles that correspond to a number. Students need to use the number and make the number using tiles. During small groups, the students count bottle caps, trace the number on a “Tactile Card” with their finger, and write the number on the “Wet-Dry-Try” chalkboard slate. The materials provide lessons and practice for the students that progress from concrete, using manipulatives, to pictorial, to abstract representation, focused on counting. The materials provide multiple opportunities and activities that build number sense in recognizing and adding numbers 1 to 20.

Evaluation for 7.2
Materials promote instruction that builds on students’ informal knowledge about mathematics.

The evidence from the English materials in this report can be verified in full within the transadaptated and translated Spanish materials.

Evidence includes but is not limited to: 

The “Teacher’s Guide” provides an observation checklist to note development as students play and participate in math activities. The observation checklist evaluates skills such as building with blocks, completing shape puzzles, using positional words, sorting objects, comparisons, and counting aligned to the specific developmental skills for children between the ages of two and five. The lessons build upon a child’s informal understandings of mathematical concepts through shape, exploring measurement, and addition/subtraction. The lessons become more complex as they move through units. Materials provide cross-curricular opportunities for math to be integrated throughout the day. For example, during “Circle Time,” students discuss the calendar: days of the week, the month of the year, and date. They count from 1 to the current day, every day. The Teacher’s Guide also provides suggestions for classroom setup to support math exploration in the classroom. One example is to include a “Math and Number” shelf that holds the “I Know My Numbers” booklet, “4 Squares, More Squares,” “Tag Bags,” and “Mix and Make Shapes.” These resources allow students to explore math concepts and skills using a variety of materials. 

In Unit 2, “My Body,” children duplicate sound and movement patterns. The materials guide the teacher to introduce the lesson with the “Pattern Dance” and provide teaching scripts to support the activity. The teacher says, “Let’s find the pattern. Tap, tap, tap, clap, clap.” The teacher makes the sound and motion, and the children follow. The materials guide the teacher to observe as children tap and move to see if they can duplicate the sound and movement. This action is an example of an informal assessment, noted as a “Check For Understanding” throughout the materials. A Check for Understanding is listed for each “Numbers and Math” lesson daily. This check ensures that, throughout lessons, the teacher is inquiring about students’ developmental status and the knowledge they are acquiring. Although this specific activity is limited to math and does not have any cross-curricular ties to other academic areas, some “Science” lessons include math concepts during this unit. For example, students look for patterns, similarities, and differences when sorting classroom objects into hard and soft. In the same activity, teachers are using the classroom environment as a vehicle for math exploration.

Unit 3 focuses on “Non-Standard Units of Measurements.” Students use hands-on materials to measure a table using Tag Bags. Students begin at the edge of the table and add tag bags to make a row on the table. This activity promotes the use of materials in the environment to explore math concepts and skills. In another lesson, “Play the Ice Cream Relay Game,” students experiment with the size, weight, and speed of balls. They use balls of different sizes and weights and guess which ball will be the fastest. After experimenting to see which rolls faster or slower, students run a relay while holding different weighted balls. The lesson integrates the concept of prediction by guiding students to guess the outcome based on the weight of the balls. Teachers can use the observational check for this week to inquire about students’ developmental status in regards to this lesson. 

In Unit 5, the lessons include building and describing triangles and rhombuses. The class sings and moves to the “Shape Song.” The teacher shows a triangle, explaining that it has three sides and three corners. The teacher asks the students, “Where have you seen this shape?” Three children lie down and make a triangle. The teacher models how to build different types of triangles by using wood pieces. Students trace triangles in a picture of real objects and then draw triangles using “My First School Book.” The next day, the teacher shows how to build a rhombus using wooden pieces, explaining that it has four sides and four corners. The students make their rhombus also using wooden pieces. The teacher asks the students, “Can you make a skinny rhombus? A wide rhombus?” My First School Book provides students with pictures of real objects, like kites and crossing signs, that include triangles and rhombuses for tracing. After tracing, students practice making their rhombus. This is an example where students are building connections to real-world concepts, and teachers emphasize how math is all around. In another activity in Unit 5, students use wooden pieces to make letters during “Readiness and Writing.” The materials allow for the resources to be used across content areas, and often lessons authentically integrate mathematics throughout the day.

Evaluation for 7.3
Materials intentionally develop young children’s ability to problem solve.

The evidence from the English materials in this report can be verified in full within the transadaptated and translated Spanish materials.

Evidence includes but is not limited to: 

In Unit 1, teachers guide students to problem solve using familiar classroom materials. Students ask and answer thoughtful questions during the “Classify Same or Different” lesson as they describe things that are the same and things that are different. Students discuss the shape, color, and size of the objects shown using colored squares. Later in the unit, students repeat the activity using coins. In another activity in Unit 1, students develop a way to solve the problem of how many scarves are in the hat. The teacher waves a wand and pulls out scarves slowly, while students count together “1, 2, 3.” The teacher asks the students, “What was the number we said?” The teacher places the scarves in a line and says, “Let’s check. How many did we say? Let’s count again: 1, 2, 3.” In this lesson, the teacher asks all the questions, and students do not develop their capacity to ask thoughtful questions. While there is guidance meant to help students find a solution to the question, teacher guidance does not prompt students to ask questions or provide feedback. Even though there is an unstructured time for students to ask questions, this is not tied to the skill of problem solving, recognizing problems, or using mathematical reasoning. 

In Unit 3, students engage in activities to support mathematical reasoning using familiar materials from the outside world. In one activity, the teacher guides students to recognize a problem focused on sequencing steps in the correct order. The teacher tells the students, “I need to put on my shoes and socks. Help me figure out what to do first.” The teacher models the problem and asks the students questions while talking through steps. The teacher says, “First, I tie my shoes. Next, I’ll put my shoes on.” The teacher then allows time for the students to respond and correct the steps. The teacher then models the correct sequence by saying, “I have to put my shoes on before I tie them? Ok.” The teacher continues by starting to put on the socks. The children correct the teacher again. The teacher asks the students, “What should I do first? Next? Last?” Similar to lessons in Unit 1, the teacher is the primary person asking questions and leading the problem solving. While “Checks for Understanding” provide a clear time for teachers to discuss and debrief with students, these opportunities do not provide the scaffold and support necessary for students to develop their own problem solving skills. The materials encourage the teacher to ask questions that build informal mathematical reasoning, but the lesson does not provide guidance or opportunities for students to ask thoughtful questions.

In Unit 5, students explore the concept of sharing, which is used in everyday life inside and out of the classroom, to solve the problem of how to divide a gingerbread man equally. The teacher reads The Gingerbread Man by Catherine McCafferty and gives each child a gingerbread man cookie or cutout. The teacher tells the students to pretend they have caught the gingerbread man and want to share him. The teacher asks the students, “How can we cut the gingerbread man so you can share it equally?” The teacher uses a knife or scissors to model to the students how to cut the gingerbread man symmetrically from head to toe. The materials encourage the teacher to ask questions that build curiosity about informal mathematics. Materials do not provide guidance for the teacher to have the students ask questions or for the teacher to provide feedback. Sometimes typical responses may suggest students respond with a question; however, this does not ensure students build their question asking capacity. Even so, this lesson utilizes an embedded, playful way to build mathematics interest in students.

In Unit 6, children participate in making and analyzing a pictograph. In this lesson, skills include using manipulatives to find a solution and representing data using pictures in a simple graph. After children place a sticker under dog, cat, or fish to determine their favorite type of pet, the teacher asks questions that force students to compare the length of the rows and determine the class favorite. Scripted questions for the teacher include “Which row is longest? Which row has the most? Which row has the least?” The teacher explains, “The rows help us see the favorite pet.” Together, students work to problem solve the question, “What is the favorite pet for the class?” These examples expose students to many different types of questions and allow them to problem solve through discussion. However, there are no supports meant to elicit questioning from the students themselves.

Evaluation for 7.4
Materials build students’ number sense.

The evidence from the English materials in this report can be verified in full within the transadaptated and translated Spanish materials.

Evidence includes but is not limited to: 

The “Teacher’s Guide,” Volume 1, includes information about how the materials build children’s conceptual knowledge in math. The Teacher’s Guide includes materials to support manipulatives, music, and rhymes to teach counting, comparisons, spatial awareness, patterning, sequencing, matching, sorting, problem solving, and geometry skills. The materials also include math concepts in the “Oral Language” lessons. The materials come with several activities that help build conceptual knowledge for children, including “My First School Book” and “I Know My Numbers,” which teach children to form numbers; the Sing, Sound, and Count With Me Music Album, which includes songs about math; “1-2-3 Touch and Flip Cards,” which promote number formation, naming numbers, counting, and sequencing; “4 Squares, More Squares,” which promote geometry and spatial awareness skills through activities; “Tag Bags,” used for counting, sorting, measuring, ordering, and building; and “Mix and Max Shapes,” which are multisensory materials that teach geometry. The materials provide support in alignment with the Texas Prekindergarten Guidelines. 

During Unit 2, the “Numbers and Math” lessons provide several opportunities to participate in number sense activities. The materials include one lesson on comparing sets to see more and fewer, one lesson on matching shapes of objects, two lessons on the number 2, and one lesson on sorting shapes by sides and corners. There is some consistency that builds off of other lessons. For example, on Day 3, children learn to write the numbers 1 and 2 on the “Wet-Dry-Try” slate during a small group lesson. The next day, during a whole group math lesson, children count the number 2 with their bodies, then with objects, and then trace and write the number in their My First School Book. Although the materials provide support to implement the activities, there is no specific guidance for teachers directly related to promoting number sense. 

Unit 3 builds on concepts introduced in previous units; After students count sets of objects in Unit 1, the Unit 3 “Combine Sets” lesson teaches students to combine sets of objects. In the lesson, students use Tag Bags and 1-2-3 Touch and Flip Cards 1–7. Using these materials, students combine sets to learn how many in all by counting. Students also connect numerals to quantities they represent. The first student counts the number of Tag Bags aloud and receives the corresponding number when complete. The second student adds to the first student, and the teacher asks, “How many in all?” (“three and two make five in all”). Although the concepts are reinforced from previous units and across Unit 3, there is no specific guidance provided to support teachers to build conceptual understanding. 

During a week in Unit 6, children explore transformations, identify and describe shapes, count object sets, and review how to name and write numerals 1 to 5. Although different concepts are addressed, there is no connecting method between the lessons to build conceptual knowledge of number sense. For example, in one lesson, children identify and describe shapes. The teacher says, “We can make one shape out of two shapes.” This activity requires an understanding of those numbers to successfully comprehend and complete the activity. Other lessons include songs to promote number sense, such as when students sing a song to line up according to the number Tag Bag each student is holding. The song teaches ordinal number names, but it also requires students to recognize the numeral they are holding. No guidance is provided for the teacher to support the conceptual understanding at this stage.

Evaluation for 7.5
Materials develop students’ academic math vocabulary.

The evidence from the English materials in this report can be verified in full within the transadaptated and translated Spanish materials.

Evidence includes but is not limited to: 

While math vocabulary is usually taught in the math lesson, sometimes vocabulary is introduced or practiced in “Oral Language” lessons. For these Oral Language lessons, instruction is organized into an “I Say, We Say, You Say” model, but it is not consistent in other lessons that teach math vocabulary. For instance, when students discuss more and less, the teacher does not define the terms for children, and instead, students learn the definitions through a hands-on activity. For example, the teacher scoops rice into a container for students to fill, and all directions and supports are verbal. No scaffold helps students understand the concepts if they struggle to understand through the provided activity. Students learn the terms heavy and light similarly in Unit 2. 

Other vocabulary terms, like one in Unit 1, do have comprehensive instruction. During the math lesson titled “Number 1,” students hear and use the term in authentic ways. They build the number 1 and count one object. Students make the number 1 using dough and a stamp. The class names objects of which there are one, like a head, a nose, and a crayon. After a few days of making and counting to 1 using objects, the students use “My First School Book” and count the pictures in the book to make 1. The book also allows students to trace and write the number 1. In this unit, the materials provide a variety of repeated opportunities for students to hear and practice the vocabulary word one in authentic ways. Although the vocabulary is present, the instructional materials do not guide teachers to scaffold children’s academic math vocabulary development or provide strategies for layering academic math vocabulary.

In Unit 2, materials use math vocabulary within the lesson to listen and practice vocabulary related to the concepts of big and small. In a small group lesson, the teacher guides the children to identify stuffed animal sizes using the words too big, bigger, compare, small, and smaller. Children gain additional practice using the terms in a later activity, where they bring in photos of family members and describe who is taller and shorter. Although the lessons do provide support for vocabulary, the materials do not guide teachers to scaffold the vocabulary development of children. In another activity, children use the vocabulary words heavy and light. The teacher introduces the lesson and says, “We are going to hold things to learn about weight.” The teacher shows children a pair of items, such as an empty milk jug and one filled with water. The children pass around the empty milk jug to hold and observe its weight. The teacher says, “This jug is light.” This action is repeated with a filled jug, and the teacher says, “This jug is heavy.” The teacher models the math vocabulary for children several times before they move into partners. In partners, one child picks up both items in a new set to determine which is heavy and which is light. The activity provides repeated opportunities to apply the new math vocabulary to real-life items. The materials provide a script for the teacher to use while introducing the vocabulary words heavy and light, but there is limited guidance for teachers to scaffold and support students’ development of academic math vocabulary. 

While there are repeated opportunities to practice vocabulary, there is not a variety of lessons that engage children with that vocabulary. This Unit 6 activity teaching students the words heavy and light is identical to the activity with those vocabulary words in Unit 2. While this does give repeated opportunities to practice with math vocabulary, it does not provide new vocabulary exposure or provide the vocabulary to children in different contexts. Heavy and light are sometimes integrated into other lessons, but these activities lack references connecting instruction between lessons. Children are not reminded of other opportunities they have had to use this vocabulary.

Evaluation for 8.1
Materials build science knowledge through inquiry-based instruction and exploration of the natural world.

The evidence from the English materials in this report can be verified in full within the transadaptated and translated Spanish materials.

Evidence includes but is not limited to: 

In Unit 1, students discover and explore objects in nature. The teacher reviews the letter L and discusses that the word leaves begins with L. The teacher explains that the students are going on a nature walk to collect leaves and other things to make the letter L. The teacher asks the students, “What other things do you think we may find while walking around outside?” The class takes cups to collect their findings and returns to the classroom. When the class returns, the teacher models how to write the letter L using a flip crayon: “Big Line down. Little Line across.” The teacher repeats using glue. The teacher takes the materials collected in the nature walk and puts them on the L. The materials provide a planned opportunity for children to learn through observation. The materials also guide the teacher to talk to children as they play, using an open-ended question that encourages children to think. Although the teacher asks guided questions, the materials do not develop children’s ability to use questions to learn. The materials do provide an opportunity for students to communicate ideas before their explorations and discoveries, but they do not include the use of scientific tools. 

In Unit 4, children learn how to determine if objects will sink or float. The teacher begins the lesson by discussing how ducks float on water. The teacher asks, “What other animals float on water?” and discusses the concepts with the children. Children take turns placing different items in water to see if they sink or float and discuss the results. During this lesson, children learn to communicate, ask questions about sinking or floating, and learn through observation. Although communication is part of this activity, other science lessons in this unit do not provide other opportunities to learn various ways to communicate. For example, when learning about plants’ life cycle, children demonstrate their understanding by creating art to show the life cycle but do not engage in discussion or questioning. There are several other science activities in this unit that include hands-on activities. Children make rain during an earth science lesson, pretending a sponge is a cloud. They add water to a sponge with a spoon until the sponge becomes too wet and begins to drip. The materials instruct the teacher to give every child a turn to make rain. Although the activities support hands-on learning, there is no use of scientific tools throughout the unit. 

In the “Observe and Demonstrate Force and Motion” lesson in Unit 5, students observe, investigate, describe, and discuss objects’ position and motion. This small group lesson begins with a review of steep and level. The teacher gives an example with the classroom floor and a ball: “Is our classroom floor steep or level? Level, that’s right. Watch as I set this ball on the floor. Did the ball move? No, the ball did not move because there was no force to make it move.” Students have opportunities to observe and communicate about the activity. The teacher asks questions to guide the lesson, but these are closed questions and are not the basis for further exploration. Instruction does sometimes utilize manipulatives and non science-specific tools to support measurement and provide hands-on experiences. However, students do not receive enough opportunity to explore science-specific tools. 

Evaluation for 8.2
Materials build social studies knowledge through study of culture and community.

The evidence from the English materials in this report can be verified in full within the transadaptated and translated Spanish materials.

Evidence includes but is not limited to: 

In Unit 1, the “Social Studies” lessons begin with students comparing and contrasting qualities in friends and then moves into a lesson on maps. By Unit 2, students examine a world map and compare sizes of countries. The focus is for students to use the vocabulary words big and small. The following lessons teach children that people speak different languages. During this lesson, the teacher teaches children how to say hello in Spanish and Chinese. The teacher includes any other languages that children may speak in the classroom. This lesson is one of the few examples providing children an opportunity to explore commonalities and differences in others. While these lessons are aligned with the Texas Prekindergarten Guidelines where students use geographical tools, students follow up these lessons with one where they talk about the people in their families. They number the members, discuss members, and draw members. Then, after discussing families, children learn to identify community helpers. During the activity, the teacher asks questions to have children think of helpers that play specific roles. For example, the teacher asks, “Who can help you when you are sick?” While these lessons cover self, family, community, and country, they do not progress in a logical sequence. In addition, few lessons in Unit 2 discuss routines or past, present, and future events. There are no lessons in Unit 2 that provide opportunities for children to explore the roles of consumers in their community.

Unit 3 focuses on specific jobs in the community. During the “Describe Jobs” lesson, the teacher discusses a chef’s job. The teacher begins the lesson by questioning students about who cooks food at school or in a restaurant. After the discussion, students listen to a read-aloud, Chefs and What They Do. Following the read-aloud, students discuss their experiences at home or a restaurant. Finally, students pretend to have a restaurant and cook, take orders, and serve customers. Although the lesson allows students to pretend to play different roles, each role’s importance is not shared in the lesson. While the lesson addresses community helpers and work, the lesson does not provide material to support students’ learning about the consumer’s role. 

Finally, in Unit 6, the materials provide a Social Studies lesson for children to connect to life events by comparing themselves to their baby pictures. This lesson is a whole group lesson; children bring in photographs from home. Children show their baby pictures and model how they have changed over time. Although the unit discusses changes from past to present, there is no additional material to address support for the Social Studies continuum. Students discuss self and family, but there is no discussion of community, city, state, or country in the unit. During this same activity, children explore commonalities and differences and make a connection to life events during the discussion, but there are no other opportunities in the unit. 

Evaluation for 8.3
Materials expose children to fine arts through exploration.

The evidence from the English materials in this report can be verified in full within the transadaptated and translated Spanish materials.

Evidence includes but is not limited to: 

The “Full Day Pre-K Class Schedule” in the “Teacher’s Guide” shows that students have morning and afternoon “Circle, Music, and Movement Whole Group” time. Instruction primarily occurs in the following four learning areas: “Language and Literacy”; “Readiness and Writing”; “Numbers and Math”; and “Oral Language, Science, or Social Studies.” The rest of the day is dedicated to lunch, rest time, two recess/gross motor play times, snack time, and small group free centers. As structured, the materials do not consistently guarantee a variety of daily fine arts experiences through multiple mediums. Lessons sometimes include coloring and encourage creative drawing, but there is no mention of the artistic process. Instead of being process-focused, lessons usually include directions to create a product. Learning centers partially expose children to fine arts through exploration, but this does not ensure a variety of daily experiences. 

In Unit 1, students learn how to greet others when they meet people. The class sings and dances to the “Hello Song.” The teacher shakes the hand of each child, saying, “Hello, this is your right hand. I’m going to do something to your right hand.” The teacher adds a stamp or lotion to the student’s right hand. The teacher models and asks students to raise their right hand, saying, “This is my right hand. I shake hands with my right hand.” The students take turns shaking each others’ right hands. The teacher checks for understanding by observing that the students use their right hand when shaking hands. The materials include opportunities for movement and dance that are integrated across the instructional materials; resources offer a selection with a variety of songs and music. Although song and dance are included, students are not exposed to a variety of fine art mediums every day.

In Unit 3, the students practice building and writing the letters C, O, Q, G, S, and J using dough. Each student receives a letter card to use on a tray and dough to form the letter. The teacher models how to make the curves and lines of the letter with the letter card underneath. Students remove the card and make their letter on a blank tray. The teacher observes the students and checks to see if they made the letter right-side-up, using their letter card’s image. For support/English Learner guidance, the materials suggest helping students to use flat hands to roll the dough back and forth. For “Enrichment” guidance, the materials suggest having students trace letters in sand, shaving cream, pudding, or finger paint. The materials include opportunities for movement and dance that are integrated across the instructional materials; resources offer a selection with a variety of songs and music. Although there are multiple mediums provided to explore fine art, the materials focus on the product and do not emphasize students’ engagement in the artistic process of creating.

In Unit 6, a paintbrush symbol denotes when “Creative Arts” (or “Fine Arts”) activities are included in the lesson plan. When it is explicitly listed, the objectives include “use art as a form of creative expression” and “participate in imaginary and dramatic play.” Although arts are included in the unit, there is no explicit fine arts objective listed every day. The most common activity that is labeled as Fine Arts or Creative Arts is during Readiness and Writing lessons: “After practicing tracing the uppercase and lowercase letter, children color the picture on the page in their ‘My First Lowercase Book.’” Materials also guide teachers to encourage creative drawing on the page. 

“Line It Up Story Cards” sometimes replace read-alouds during the instruction. These five cards summarize a story using three images and some minor reading. Fine arts activities often accompany them. For example, the “Miss Muffet” story card includes an activity where students picture what happens in the nursery rhyme and then use their imagination to draw what happened. Here the focus is on recalling the events of the story instead of exploring the process of fine art. In the story card “Isabel’s Birthday,” students conclude the activity with a music connection. Students listen to the song “Counting Candles” and sing along. 

Evaluation for 8.4
Materials include technology applications.

The evidence from the English materials in this report can be verified in full within the transadaptated and translated Spanish materials.

Evidence includes but is not limited to: 

The materials provide multiple opportunities to link technology into the classroom experience. The teacher website associated with the materials contains the “Teacher’s Guides,” student activity books, the Mat Man books, assessments, resources, student apps, and support. The teacher website contains access to the user guide for each of the online applications used during instruction. For example, one of the user guides explains how the program is a keyboarding curriculum that teaches digital literacy, digital citizenship, and correct typing technique and fluency. It also provides links to lesson plans for the teacher to help students become digital citizens and have correct typing technique and fluency. The “Dashboard for Digital Teaching” allows teachers to grant access to the apps to appropriately support student use. The three applications included with the materials are age-appropriate and allow children to use various digital tools. One of the apps includes an activity where children record themselves, which is an opportunity to use a different digital tool. There are also opportunities for listening, writing, and learning through using these digital applications. Additionally, the teacher website includes digital versions of the manipulatives that match what students use during in-person activities. 

The “Wet-Dry-Try” app starts by modeling how to write a capital letter, number, or lowercase letter using interactive chalk on a blackboard slate background. The students trace the letter or number using an interactive “wet sponge,” then with an interactive “paper towel,” and finally with interactive “chalk.” After every stroke, the interactive tool moves to where the next stroke begins. Once all the letter or number practice is complete, the student receives a star. The letters in the app are locked; to move on to the next letter, the child must complete the previous ones. The materials provide opportunities for children to engage with technology in a similar way that they do in the classroom during “Readiness and Writing” and “Numbers and Math.” The student app supports and aligns with Readiness and Writing and Numbers and Math lessons. Although there is no specific guidance provided to the teachers on using the apps to support appropriate learning, the apps allow the teacher to control access and minimize distraction. Some lessons also include a “click away” section that links to additional technology pieces. These are self-explanatory and usually integrate videos about letters or numbers of the week.

The “Sound Around Letters” app starts by displaying a capital letter card that flips over to show the corresponding lowercase letter. Next, the app displays the letter with one to two objects that begin with the letter sound; students interact with the app by making a puzzle piece or making sounds. Then, the app models the sound of the letter. The student has two opportunities to record themselves making the sound of the letter to hear how they sound. Once all the practice for the letter is complete, the student receives a star. The materials provide opportunities for children to engage with technology in a similar way that students do in the classroom during “Language and Literacy.” The student app uses digital flip cards with sounds and a computer microphone to record student voices to learn letter sounds. The materials provide tools that are age-appropriate to hear and practice letter sounds. The student app supports and aligns with the lessons in Language and Literacy. The pacing is based on student progress; the child must complete the previous task to progress. 

The “Touch and Flip Numbers” app starts by displaying a card with a number that the student touches to flip to show the number of objects that correlates to the number. For example, the number 3 card flips to show three cows. Next, a new card displays the number, and the students need to touch the squares to make three squares. The app then displays the number as a word with new objects, which also correlate to the number. The student needs to touch the objects to color them. Finally, the app models how to write a number with a crayon. The materials provide opportunities for children to engage with technology in a similar way that students do in the classroom during Numbers and Math. The materials provide age-appropriate tools to model number identification and number writing. The student app supports and aligns with Numbers and Math lessons. As with the other apps, the pacing is locked until students complete one number. 

Evaluation for 9.1
Materials include developmentally-appropriate diagnostic tools (e.g. formative and summative progress monitoring) and guidance for teachers, students, and administrators to monitor progress.

Evidence includes but is not limited to:

The materials include developmentally appropriate formal and informal diagnostic tools. For example, the “Get Set for School Guía para maestros de prekínder” includes an evaluation section with instructions to use and access to the assessments. This section also includes a how-to guide for using the benchmark assessments and observation checklists. It provides teachers with an overview of effectively administering formative and summative assessments. This overview includes using timeframes, preparing and reviewing materials for students to complete tasks, watching a tutorial video, preparing the setting and schedule, administering the assessments, and reviewing the results. The timelines for assessments are between 10 and 15 minutes, which is developmentally appropriate for 4- to 5-year-old children. 

The diagnostic tools measure some of the content and process skills outlined in the Texas Prekindergarten domains. The assessment section domains are: “Numbers and Math,” “Language and Literacy,” and “Readiness and Writing.” The materials do not include any diagnostic tools related to science, social studies, fine arts, physical development, social-emotional skills, or technology. 

The formal assessment tool gives an overview of the assessments in addition to step-by-step guidance and teacher scripts for administering each measure. During the “Spanish Readiness Check,” the teacher asks questions about pictures (“¿Qué es esto?”), questions about color (“¿De qué color es esta crayola?”), and questions about letters (“¿Qué letra es esta?”). The teacher script ensures accuracy and consistency during the administration of diagnostic tools because each student is asked the same questions in the same format. Another example is located in one of the “Lenguaje y alfabetización” assessments. The teacher states, “Dime el nombre de estas letras. (Apunta a la E, A, etc.).” If the child cannot name the letters, the teacher can ask the student to simply identify specific letters. The teacher asks, “¿Cuál es la R? ¿Cuál es la A?” This action allows the teacher to at least check for letter recognition since the child could not name the letter. This information ensures consistent and accurate administration of formal assessments for each of the areas included in the materials by providing the teacher with scripts and instructions to adapt the assessment based on student responses.

The formal assessments in the curriculum are summative tests that take place three times per year (beginning, middle, and end). These benchmarks test the same areas as the observation checklists: Lenguaje y alfabetización, “Números y matemáticas,” and “Preparación para la escritura.” The assessment results help teachers know what their students’ present level of performance is to guide instruction and address grade-level skills. In the Readiness and Writing benchmark, students name pictures, color pictures, show their crayon grip, trace shapes, name letters, write their names, and more. This formal diagnostic tool provides teachers with an accurate report of what each student knows and what areas of reinforcement they might need based on the results. 

One of the observational diagnostic tools consists of questions in the “Comprueba el entendimiento” section of each daily lesson. These questions provide guidance to quickly evaluate if the students understand the lesson. Based on student answers, the teacher can go back and reteach if needed. An example of this is in Unit 3 during a “Science” lesson. The objective is for students to experiment with the size, weight, and speed of balls. The teacher observes the students “mientras experimentan con las bolas.” The teacher observes to see if students understand the concepts of fast/slow and heavy/light. Using this observational assessment, the teacher can monitor student progress at the end of each lesson and plan to support the students who need extra help or who would benefit from additional clarification. 

The materials provide opportunities for students to track their own progress and growth by allowing them to select work for their portfolios. For example, in the Get Set for School Guía para maestros de prekínder, there is a “Portfolio” section with information for teachers to create opportunities for children to select work for their own portfolios. The materials state, “Consider having the child help choose work for the portfolio so that he or she feels a sense of ownership and pride in the process.” This opportunity allows students to reflect on their work quality and select the samples they are most proud of. Although it is developmentally appropriate, this is the only reference to students helping track their own progress and growth.

Evaluation for 9.2
Materials include guidance for teachers and administrators to analyze and respond to data from diagnostic tools.

Evidence includes but is not limited to:

The materials include diagnostic assessments in the domains of “Language and Communication,” “Emergent Literacy: Reading,” “Emergent Literacy: Writing,” and “Mathematics,” but there is a lack of additional guidance or information on how to use the data to plan instruction and differentiation. The information gathered from the diagnostic tools in Volume 1 of the “Teacher’s Guide” could help teachers in the planning stages. The materials guide the teacher to use “las listas de verificación de observaciones para monitorear el progreso de cada estudiante entre las evaluaciones de estándares.” This section provides the teacher with specific lists to gather anecdotal notes during the evaluations. The teacher color codes “las áreas identificadas como necesarias con los nombres de los estudiantes,” which helps make groups based on the color-coding system. The materials then suggest that the teacher use the data from the “listas de verificación de observaciones para identificar la instrucción identificada y proveer práctica durante el trabajo de la mañana, centros de trabajo, etc.” This data guides the teacher to adjust instruction based on the results and provide additional practice. What is missing is teacher support in effectively adjusting instruction. Referring back to those center activities is a good start, but teachers need explicit guidance to ensure they are providing the most effective interventions possible to reinforce the concepts. For example, suppose a student is not recognizing the name of many letters. In that case, the following activities need to be part of the students’ extra practice during centers: “Letter Bingo,” “I Spy” (letters), and “Memory Game,” matching capital letters with the lowercase letters where they have to say the name of the letter each time they flip a card. Such clear connections between data and the specific intervention would provide the level of support teachers need to ensure they are responding in the most efficient way possible to individual student needs. 

Not all domains are included in the assessments: “Social-Emotional, Physical Development, Technology, Social Studies, Science, Fine Arts” are missing, which does not allow for the teacher to respond to individual students’ needs in these domains. Since there are no measures of student progress in these areas, the instructional materials do not support progress monitoring in all domains.

The materials include observational and anecdotal checklists, but there is limited guidance to support teachers in understanding these diagnostic tools’ results. The materials include diagnostic assessments in the domains of language and communication, emergent literacy reading, emergent literacy writing, and mathematics, but there is no evidence of additional guidance or information in understanding results.

Additional activities are found in the “Apoyo” and “Enriquecimiento” sections of the lessons.

Each of these sections includes strategies that can be used to support children who demonstrate a need for more support or extensions. The strategies are specific to the lesson and the skills being taught. Although these sections provide opportunities for differentiation in response to student needs for that particular lesson, there is no further guidance based on student data from diagnostic tools.

There is no evidence that the materials provide guidance for administrators to support teachers in identifying specific areas of need. The assessment data available in the instructional materials could be used by administrators to identify specific areas of need for program improvement. However, the benchmarks do not provide an overall scoring sheet that can be used to analyze individual classes or the entire prekindergarten team as a whole. Because the scoring documents focus on each child separately, it is difficult for administrators to support teachers when planning their instruction in response to data.

Evaluation for 9.3
Materials include frequent, embedded opportunities for monitoring progress.

Evidence includes but is not limited to:

The materials include routine and systematic progress monitoring opportunities in some domains to measure and track student progress accurately. The domains included in the progress monitoring are “Numbers and Math,” “Language and Literacy,” and “Readiness and Writing.” The following domains are not included: “Physical Development, Social Studies, Science, Social-Emotional, Technology, Fine Arts.” The lack of progress monitoring opportunities in these domains makes it more difficult for teachers to track student progress in these content areas.

The materials recommend routine and systematic observations embedded in everyday activities and interactions. The “Preschool Assessments and Tests” section contains observational checklists and directions for use. For example, the Numbers and Math checklist includes directions for the student name, date, and notes for teacher observations. The teacher observes students to see if they can use time of day and sequencing words or compare two objects. This checklist provides a system for documentation in an age-appropriate way where students do not feel examined or tested. The observational checklists are strategically embedded during times when the students are working. These areas can be measured to track student progress; however, the checklists do not specify progress monitoring frequency. There is no guidance for teachers to determine how frequently to assess a student’s progress. 

The materials provide opportunities to track students’ progress and growth by including information about selecting student work to build portfolios. The “Portfolios” section of the assessment materials provides information about collecting individual student work over time and how to use them to “plan future learning experiences.” “Reviewing this information will help you understand how children’s knowledge develops.” This information gives teachers a guide for tracking student progress throughout the year. 

The materials include an appropriate frequency of formal assessments: three times per year, at the beginning, middle, and end of the school year. The assessments are administered in 10 to 15 minutes, which is developmentally appropriate for children ages four to five. The formal assessments include recommendations for teachers to identify progress and support areas. These benchmarks reflect accurate methods for assessing young children. They are aligned with early learning standards and program goals, with specific emphasis on certain content areas. For example, the “Lenguaje y alfabetización” benchmark specifically assesses “letras mayúsculas, letras minúsculas, describe y compara, rimas infantiles y hacer rimas, palabras compuestas, sílabas, palabras.” 

The materials include daily informal assessments after every activity and lesson for each content area for the day. For example, directly after a “Números y matemáticas” lesson from Unidad 4, the teacher observes students to see if they can “explicar por qué hicieron esa elección usando ‘es probable’ y ‘es improbable.’” The “Check for Understanding” after each lesson allows teachers to monitor student progress frequently.

Evaluation for 10.1
Materials include guidance, scaffolds, supports, and extensions that maximize student learning potential.

Evidence includes but is not limited to:

The materials provide guidance for teachers to maximize student learning potential in the “Get Set for School Guía para maestros de prekínder.” The section for setting up “centros dirigidos por los niños” helps teachers create additional opportunities to extend and explore new learning in student-directed centers. For example, the materials state: “Los centros dirigidos por los niños…se diseñaron para que los niños exploren e interactúen con los compañeros a medida que descubren y aprenden nuevos conceptos a través del juego.” The guide includes recommendations both for children who have mastered and who have not yet mastered the content. 

This resource generally references how the curriculum supports students with special needs. While there is no specific guidance describing how to adapt materials for these students, the materials provide targeted support for students through the “Apoyo” section in every subject area lesson. Although not tailored for Preschool Programs for Children with Disabilities (PPCD) or Early Childhood Special Education (ECSE), this section can be useful for all levels of learners. 

In Unidad 1, the teacher facilitates a lesson about position words and provides opportunities for students to practice identifying the position of objects. During the Apoyo section, the teacher encourages students to say the position words every time they pass the items. Guidance on using the materials, prompting, and additional practice for students allows teachers to differentiate support for children who need extra help to master the content. 

The lessons have an “Enriquecimiento” section which provides new ways to explore and learn. In a “Preparación y escritura” lesson from Unidad 2, “los niños aprendan a trazar la letra I.” In order to maximize students’ learning potential with the letter I, the Enriquecimiento section includes a musical activity where the teacher and students sing “La mosca, la abeja, y la hormiga” while imitating how insects fly. 

The materials follow a logical sequence that allows students to make connections with themes and maximize their learning potential. In Unidad 4, the theme is “La Tierra.” The students discuss where animals live during an Enriquecimiento activity in this unit. The teacher states: “En los ríos viven muchos seres vivos. ¿Qué animales viven en el río? ¿Dónde más viven los animales?” This activity directly connects to the “Earth” theme, allowing students more opportunities to spend time exploring related concepts. The curriculum provides activities for every lesson to support targeted instruction. In a math lesson, children explore the concept of area by covering a specific shape with squares. The Apoyo section guides the teacher to “cuenta en voz alta a medida que se coloca cada cuadrado. Di: uno, dos, tres, cuatro.” This one-to-one correspondence reinforcement takes place within a small group. These additional activities ensure struggling students understand the concept, using manipulatives in a more scripted manner with teacher guidance and support. 

The materials also include guidance for targeted instruction and activities for children who have mastered the content. In a “Números y matemáticas” lesson from Unidad 5, the students practice counting using manipulatives. The lesson prompts the teacher to challenge the students, stating, “Si los niños cuentan bien la misma cantidad, agregan más fichas.” This lesson is an example of upward scaffolds that deepen grade-appropriate learning. 

Another activity for students who have mastered the content can be found in Unit 6.32. During a “Lenguaje oral” lesson, students discuss what types of animals live on grasslands. Next, the students roam around the classroom like a lion in the grassland. Then the teacher asks, “¿Qué más puede hacer un león?” This question is an upwards scaffold that allows students to expand their knowledge of what lions do in their natural habitat. When students act out the lion’s actions, they make connections with what they are learning through this engaging activity. In the Enriquecimiento section, students debate about what types of animals live on grasslands. This lesson provides enriching activities for all levels of learners through higher-level questioning, debate, and interactive movement. 

Evaluation for 10.2
Materials provide a variety of instructional methods that appeal to a variety of learning interests and needs.

Evidence includes but is not limited to:

The materials support flexible grouping for delivering instruction. The grouping types are clear as the schedule indicates when whole group, small group, teacher-led activities, and free play take place. In addition, most activities start out as whole group and then students move to small groups where they can practice and further explore. In the “Get Set for School Guía para maestros de prekínder,” the materials state that “las actividades multisensoriales atraviesan todo el currículo...las siguientes páginas incluyen información adicional sobre cada actividad y sugerencias para centros dirigidos por los maestros y los niños.” The “Teacher’s Guide” includes information about the centers for each of the subjects and lessons throughout the curriculum. This provides information for teachers that support the use of flexible groupings and lesson settings. 

The Teacher's Guide also includes a variety of instructional approaches for teachers to engage students. For example, the “Tarjetas de palabras” section explains how to use the word cards as an instructional strategy. The materials state: “Las tarjetas de palabras tienen letras que son fácilmente visibles desde la distancia y pueden ser usadas para reforzar el seguimiento visual.” Not only can the students easily see the vocabulary word, it is also supported by a picture. This section provides information to use developmentally appropriate teaching strategies and scaffolds to support visual learning styles.

The materials incorporate a variety of multimodal instructional approaches in order to meet the variety of learning needs for each student. For example, in the “Lenguaje y alfabetización” part of a lesson from Unidad 1, students identify letters in their own name. The materials guide the teacher to create a visual: “Escribe el alfabeto en la pizarra de tiza o de limpieza en seco.” The teacher tells the students whose letter she is holding. The students pass the letter to one another and repeat the name of the letter as they pass it. For example, “Este es la L de Lucy.” Then the teacher “ayuda a los niños a decir la letra mientras la pasan.” This lesson supports visual, kinesthetic, verbal, and auditory learners.

Each lesson has a materials section that lists the concrete materials and/or visuals to support the learning. More specifically, a lesson in Unidad 3, like all the lessons, has a “Materiales” section. In this lesson the materials needed are “Objetos/juguetes que empiezan con la letra O (por ejemplo, ovalo, oca, ojos, oso, oveja, ostra, opera, ocelote, ola).” This provides a list of materials to support developmentally appropriate multimodal strategies.

The materials support flexible grouping at the beginning of every lesson, by stating if it is meant for whole group, small group, or pairs. Although most lessons include a combination of all three. During small group and paired activities, the teacher facilitates and supports students’ learning by scaffolding as needed. For example, in Unidad 4, the teacher checks for understanding in a math lesson when students predict the probability of an outcome. The teacher asks, “¿Pueden explicar por qué hicieron esa elección usando ‘es probable’ y ‘es improbable’?” If students need more help, the teacher meets with them individually or in a small group to discuss real-life examples the students can relate to.

The materials allow students to practice developing new skills independently, in pairs. For example, in a “Números y matemáticas” lesson from Unidad 4, students study sound and movement patterns. After the small group lesson and practice with the teacher, students create their own patterns in pairs using paper or manipulatives. The materials state: “Coloca a los niños en pares en los que cada uno haga un patrón con bloques o con formas o coloreando un papel. Luego, deben cambiar de lugar e intentar copiar el patrón de su compañero”. The flexible grouping in this lesson allows students to develop new skills independently while also working with a partner.

Students engage through indirect learning in a “Social Studies” lesson from Unidad 5. The students learn about “el trabajo de un conductor de tren.” The teacher explains and models the conductor’s job, then students take turns acting out the conductor’s job. The lesson guides the teacher to check for understanding. The lesson states: “Observa a los niños mientras hacen la dramatización. ¿Demuestran comprensión de la función de un cobrador?” This lesson supports another type of instructional approach to engage students in mastery of content through dramatic play.

Another important component of the curriculum that supports visual, tactile, and kinesthetic strategies is the implementation of “Mat Man” during math lessons. In Unidad 5, the lesson objective is for students to identify different shapes. After playing the game “Simón dice,” students have the opportunity to put Mat Man together. In doing so, they demonstrate their understanding of the shapes by arranging the shapes to make his body. The exploration with concrete materials, in this case Mat Man, supports the implementation of developmentally appropriate instructional strategies.

Evaluation for 10.3
Materials include supports for English Learners (ELs) to meet grade-level learning expectations.

Evidence includes but is not limited to:

In the “Get Set for School Guía para maestros de prekínder,” the materials provide general information about the lessons’ different features and the supports included; as it stands, the materials do not include accommodations for linguistics commensurate with various levels of English language proficiency. While the lessons provide follow-up questions to check for understanding, they are not available at different proficiency levels. For example, in Unidad 3, the questions “¿Qué es una abuela?” ¿A dónde vas con tu abuela?” and “¿Qué me puedes contar sobre un pariente?” focus on the two vocabulary words for that “Oral Language” lesson: abuela and pariente. However, there are no accommodations for ELs at different levels. The materials include very few supports for ELs to become competent in listening, speaking, reading, and writing in the English language.

Each lesson has an “Apoyo” and “Enriquecimiento” section which is intended to support different student levels. The built-in Apoyo section of the lessons provide the teacher strategies to meet the needs of struggling students in Spanish. The Enriquecimiento section provides built-in teacher guidance for lesson enrichment in Spanish. The Apoyo section in all the lessons would be an appropriate location to provide guidance to support ELs at various levels of language proficiency. In a “Lenguaje oral” lesson from Unidad 6, the teacher asks students, “¿Alguna vez viste estos cuerpos de agua?”, referring to oceans, lakes, and ponds. For students with different proficiency levels, the question could be framed differently, or students could be given leveled sentence stems to differentiate their language levels. This framing is essential to successfully answer the question and determine if students understand the vocabulary words. Offering only one question, at one proficiency level, does not accommodate ELs. The language support needed to reinforce the target language, either Spanish or English, are not addressed in each lesson. 

The curriculum has minimal examples of using students’ first language as the foundation for developing skills in the target language, except in the “La Pre-enseñanza de vocabulario” section in the “Apoyó a estudiantes aprendices de inglés como segunda lengua (ELL)” that provides teachers with guidance for introducing vocabulary. According to the guide, the teacher should use students’ home language first and then use the English word to reinforce prior knowledge skills and make the connection between the words. This strategy encourages students’ primary language as a means to develop linguistic and academic skills in the target language. The guide also includes some instruction for the teacher on scaffolding strategies to support language acquisition. The only example found in the lessons of how to use a student’s first language as the foundation for developing skills in the target language can be found in an activity for “Habilidades de preparación y escritura” from Unidad 4. In this lesson, students learn how to form the letter D, and part of the activity includes reviewing the name and sound of this letter. The teacher introduces English words that start with D and allows students to make connections between the English and Spanish words. The teacher facilitates this thought process by asking, “¿Con qué letra empieza la palabra delfín? ¡La letra D! ¡Muy bien! Y qué tal la palabra dolphin. ¿Qué es delfín en Inglés? ¡También con la letra D! ¡Fabuloso!” At this time, the relationship between the two cognates helps students start making connections that support language acquisition.

Separate from the EL guide, the materials include very few translations or supporting information about another language. In the “Teacher's Guide,” there is a note about strengthening the learning at home, encouraging families to play games, read books together, and sing children’s songs in the home language. However, encouraging the use of the home language with parents does not represent a guide for teachers specific to supporting ELs to meet grade-level learning expectations. 

In each unit, there are four subject areas studied: “Lenguaje y alfabetización, Números y matemáticas, Habilidades de preparación y escritura, y Lenguaje Oral.” These lessons are all presented in Spanish and guide the teacher in developing skills only in the primary language, which is Spanish. There is no reference to the use of Spanish to improve the children’s English. For example, in a Preparación para la escritura section from Unidad 2, the teacher guides students to trace the letter E. Students are given a worksheet to trace the letter, including the word elefante with a picture. The materials could have added a connection to the English language because elefante is a cognate of elephant. There are hardly any references to cognates in the materials, which would provide an effective way to develop students’ linguistic skills. 

Evaluation for 11.1
Materials include year-long plans with practice and review opportunities that support instruction.

The evidence from the English materials in this report can be verified in full within the translated Spanish materials.

Evidence includes but is not limited to: 

The “Teacher’s Guide,” Volume 1, includes a “Scope and Sequence” that details the overarching skill being taught in each academic content area each day to support concept development. The Scope and Sequence goes week by week and day by day to give teachers a big-picture overview of what the year will look like and what skills will be taught throughout the curriculum. The weeks are organized into six-week units that have an overarching theme, such as “My Body,” “Earth,” and “Animals.” However, the theme is not always present in the lessons described in the Scope and Sequence. For example, during a week in Unit 2, “My Body,” the only lessons related to or tied back to the theme are the “Oral Language” lessons that teach children vocabulary words such as elbow, arm, bend, and reach. The materials also do not include ties to the Texas Prekindergarten Guidelines or the TEKS for grades K–2 for any vertical alignment. They only include a list of developmental skills children should reach by each age, from ages two to five, so teachers can make informed decisions based on their students’ development. While the materials do include a year-long plan for instruction, there is no evidence of vertical alignment in the plan.

The materials provide review and practice of knowledge and skills in math and language art domains and curriculum across the units. The materials follow a research-based sequence of teaching letters, which has teachers working on one letter a week. Letters are reviewed at different points in the curriculum. For example, at the end of Unit 2, the materials guide the teacher to spend a day reviewing L, F, E, H, T, I, and U, the letters taught so far. Again, in Unit 4, the materials guide the teacher to spend a day reviewing C, O, Q, G, S, J, D, and P. After introducing all of the letters, the materials go back and review them throughout Unit 6. A similar process is followed to teach and review the numerals 1 to 10. Another “Numbers and Math” skill taught in pre-K is learning to identify, extend, and create patterns. Patterns are introduced in Unit 1, with lessons that teach children how to identify things that are the same and different and sort by color. These are prerequisite skills to patterning. In Unit 2, children have the opportunity to duplicate a simple pattern and go on a pattern walk. In Unit 3, children practice patterns in a “Repeat After Me” activity and also have opportunities to explore patterns in the real world. In Unit 4, children review duplicating a simple pattern and grow or extend patterns. In Unit 6, children have opportunities to create patterns. This sequence allows children to have multiple opportunities to practice and build on their pattern skills. Other math concepts have a similar scope and sequence. Although math and language arts are addressed across the units, oral language, social studies, and science lessons are not reviewed throughout the materials in the same manner to support practice throughout the curriculum. Students are exposed to oral language, science, and social studies topics once most of the time.

Evaluation for 11.2
Materials include implementation support for teachers and administrators.

The evidence from the English materials in this report can be verified in full within the translated Spanish materials.

Evidence includes but is not limited to: 

The materials’ scope and sequence supports knowledge and skills across the units. The “Teacher’s Guide,” Volume 1, includes a “Scope and Sequence” with the essential knowledge and skills taught every day. The Scope and Sequence includes 36 weeks of organized charts broken down into six units. It provides an overview of what is taught each day. For example, during one week, in Unit 2, “My Body,” in “Numbers and Math,” the lessons are all centered around the number 3. One day, the class reviews 3 and compares using the words long and short. The following day, they review 3 using the “I Know My Numbers” booklet. The lessons outlined in the Scope and Sequence all match the overarching skill listed at the beginning of the week. This outline allows teachers to quickly see what skills are taught in the curriculum and when skills repeat or review. In this example, while the number 3 is taught in Unit 2, the materials also include “Math Review” in Unit 5, where a day is spent reviewing numbers 1 through 5. In the Unit 3 weekly objectives for Week 1, the focus for “Language and Literacy” is on the sound and activities for the letter C; for “Readiness and Writing,” it is on letter building and tracing for letter C; for Numbers and Math it is on the number 5; and for “Oral Language/Science/Social Studies,” it is pretend play and jobs with the word costumes. All the units are written in the same order and follow the same protocol. While the materials contain a well-organized scope and sequence across all units, it does not reference the TPG. The activity titles are listed for each day of the week with no identification of their associated knowledge and skill or how these knowledge and skills build and connect over time. 

Prior to each week’s worth of daily lesson plans, there is an additional “Week at a Glance” that defines the skills being taught each day. The knowledge or skill is listed here, but there is no direct connection to the TPG. Instead, each knowledge or skill is accompanied by a symbol representing the associated domain: “Approaches to Learning/Social-Emotional Learning, Language/Communication, Emergent Literacy, Emergent Writing, Mathematics, Science, Social Studies, Creative Arts, Physical Development.” Teachers can see which skills are taught and when they are presented, but this document does not explain how the skills build and connect across the year or into kindergarten. 

Additionally, teachers can download a Texas correlations chart from the general Learning Without Tears website: “Correlations to the Texas Prekindergarten Guidelines.” Although not a scope and sequence, this document does list pages, resources, teacher tools, and manipulatives that align to each standard in the TPG. While the listed pages are specific, the other references remain general. This resource is useful to see which parts of the materials connect to specific parts of the TPG, but it does not list the order in which the skills are presented or how they build and connect over time. 

Materials include supports to help teachers implement the materials as intended to support learning. The Teacher's Guide, Volume 1, provides an introduction to the instructional materials, activities for the teacher to use in small groups and centers, information about the classroom setup, and guidance on the resources. It also explains the importance of organization for the teacher and the students. It states that materials need to be easy for the students to access and locate. There is a guide on setting up for the content areas of Language and Literacy, Readiness and Writing, Numbers and Math, and Oral Language. The teachers are guided through the implementation of materials for each area and the activities. For example, the Language and Literacy area has five resources that can be used and six activities. In the Teacher’s Guide, Volume 2, the teacher can find all of the multisensory lessons, listed in order, from Week 1 to Week 36. The lesson plans included scripted lessons, with a list of materials for each activity to prepare teachers prior to beginning their lesson. The materials include most of the items that are required for each lesson. With each set of manipulatives included in the materials, there is a small guide on using them and examples for activities. For example, “Mix and Make Shapes” are manipulatives included with the materials. The guide that comes with them details what these manipulatives can be used for, what explicit skills are tied to them, and 10 activities with scripted lessons to use with them. There are many supports throughout the materials to ensure teachers can implement them as intended. Although the materials provide support for the teacher on implementing the materials as intended, there is no guidance specifically to help administrators support teachers. 

One specific resource for teachers is the “Learning Without Tears PD Hub.” Found on the Learning Without Tears general website, this yearly online membership provides videos, optional webinars, and the potential for virtual coaching. Five videos provide an overview of the materials and support for assessment implementation; these videos range from five minutes to 15 minutes. In the “Live Webinars” section, there are recordings of four previously recorded webinars that focus on building writers, developing fine motor skills, comparing direct instruction and play-based instruction, and teaching students how to fix pencil grips. There are no scheduled chats currently available for “Virtual Coaching”; however, one can schedule customized virtual coaching sessions for the school or district by contacting the program’s professional development team. This resource helps teachers implement materials as intended but does not differentiate support specifically for administrators.

The material includes support for a school year’s worth of pre-k instruction, including realistic pacing guidance and routines. The Teacher's Guide, Volume 1, provides a Scope and Sequence and a full-day schedule to follow for a full school year. The Teacher's Guide, Volume 2, contains all the lessons for a full year of instruction. The lessons can be implemented within the time constraints of a school year. The progression of Language and Literacy, Readiness and Writing, and Numbers and Math lessons follow realistic pacing that includes ample practice and review. 

Evaluation for 11.3
Materials provide implementation guidance to meet variability in programmatic design and scheduling considerations.

The evidence from the English materials in this report can be verified in full within the translated Spanish materials.

Evidence includes but is not limited to: 

The materials provide guidance to support the developmental progression of learning, following a strategic plan for implementation. The “Teacher's Guide,” Volume 1, discusses how the materials are aligned to child development research. The instructional material is structured by research published by Gessell, A., H.M. Halverson, H. Thomson, F.L. Ilg, B.M. Castner, L.B. Ames, and C.S. Amatruda in The First Year of Life: A Guide to the Study of the Pre-School Child. The material explains that it starts with vertical and horizontal letters, then moves on to letters that curve, and finally progresses to letters with diagonals. The material states that research says writing development is significant to academic performance and has a negative impact if overlooked. This research explains the sequence of “Language and Literacy” and “Readiness and Writing” lessons in the instructional materials and why they must be taught in a specific order. Additionally, the Teacher’s Guide, Volume 1, also includes suggestions to make the materials work in a variety of classrooms. There is guidance on what to do for a 3-days-per-week program and guidance for preschool programs with fewer than 36 weeks in the school year. There are also example schedules for half-day and full-day programs. 

The materials provide support for LEAs to incorporate the curriculum into the school. The Teacher's Guide, Volume 1, includes a full-day schedule and a “Scope and Sequence” with the essential knowledge and skills taught each day. The Scope and Sequence includes 36 weeks of organized charts broken down into six units. The unit charts contain six weeks with five lessons for Language and Literacy, Readiness and Writing, “Numbers and Math,” and “Oral Language/Science/Social Studies.” Materials are designed for easy implementation for a district, campus, and teacher to use, but they do not provide support for different programs to customize.

Evaluation for 11.4
Materials provide guidance on fostering connections between home and school.

The evidence from the English materials in this report can be verified in full within the translated Spanish materials.

Evidence includes but is not limited to: 

The materials provide information about “School-to-Home Connections” in the introduction “Teacher's Guide” to support relationships between teachers and families. The guide provides 11 ways to make strong connections between school and home. Some of the suggestions are utilizing planned events such as teacher-parent conferences and school visits; communicating through letters, emails, and podcasts; encouraging reading to children as much as possible; sharing the curriculum with families; and sharing assessment information to identify areas of strength and areas that need improvement. The materials also provide a “Welcome” parent letter, which teachers can print from the online portal. The letter provides information on the program’s curriculum and its use in the classroom. The letter also provides a “Letter and Number Formation” chart. There are also additional parent letters teachers can print from the online portal. Also on the online portal, there is a “Fine Motor and Letter Practice” home sheet, which suggests activities to do at home. Some of the activities include finger-plays, stringing popcorn, and building objects with clay. 

To support learning and development at home, the materials suggest teachers share the publisher’s website for parents to explore the resources. Some provided at-home activities parents can use to assist students who need extra assistance are in “I Know My Numbers” and the Fine Motor and Letter Practice home sheet. The materials are available in English and Spanish to support the home language. Materials also suggest the teacher share specific classroom songs with the families for them to sing at home; families are encouraged to share fun songs they may sing at home as well. Materials provide resources for families to use at home that support the curriculum being used at school and to support students’ learning and development.

Evaluation for 11.5
The visual design of student and teacher materials (whether in print or digital) is neither distracting nor chaotic.

The evidence from the English materials in this report can be verified in full within the translated Spanish materials.

Evidence includes but is not limited to: 

Both the online materials and physical materials are easy to find because they are clearly labeled. Lessons contain a list of materials needed, objectives, vocabulary words, and step-by-step directions for the teacher to follow, including questions to ask students. Text is bolded to indicate what the teacher says within a lesson. The resources are student-friendly, have specific purposes, and support fine motor skills. For example, students use sturdy wood pieces to build letters with their hands. Materials are designed to support student learning and are not distracting.

The materials include student resources with illustrations in black and white and in color, depending on the resource. The “Word Time” vocabulary cards have colorful illustrations; they are meant to teach children new vocabulary words. The illustrations support student learning. The “ABC” and “1-2-3 Touch and Flip” cards have black-and-white illustrations that correspond to the number or letter being taught. There are no authentic or real-life photographs or pictures, but the illustrations are clear and easily identifiable. The student consumables also include black-and-white illustrations, which are meant to be colored in, so they support student learning and fine motor development.

The materials also provide Mat Man books, which contain illustrations that help children understand what is going on in the story. The “Story Cards” contain colorful illustrations and are large enough to be seen during whole group instruction. Other materials that are meant to be used in the whole group are large enough to see during lessons as well.

The digital resources mimic what the resources look like in person. This similarity makes them easy to navigate for children and supports their learning rather than distracting them.