Program Information
- Copyright Type
- Proprietary
ELAR: Phonics
KindergartenPublisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Copyright: 2019
The quality review is the result of extensive evidence gathering and analysis by Texas educators of how well instructional materials satisfy the criteria for quality in the subject-specific rubric. Follow the links below to view the scores and read the evidence used to determine quality.
Section 1. Phonics-Related Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) and English Language Proficiency Standards (ELPS) Alignment
Grade | TEKS Student % | TEKS Teacher % | ELPS Student % | ELPS Teacher % |
Grade K | 100% | 100% | Not Reviewed | 100% |
Grade 1 | 100% | 100% | Not Reviewed | 100% |
Grade 2 | 100% | 100% | Not Reviewed | 100% |
Grade 3 | 100% | 100% | Not Reviewed | 100% |
Section 2. Instructional Approach
Section 3. Content-Specific Skills
Section 4. Progress Monitoring
Section 5. Supports for All Learners
Section 6. Additional Information: Resources
Section 7. Additional Support
Phonics rules based on 19 TAC 74.2001(1). Program does comply ("yes") or does not comply ("no").
Phonics rules based on 19 TAC 74.2001(3)(A). Program does comply ("yes") or does not comply ("no").
Grade | TEKS Student % | TEKS Teacher % | ELPS Student % | ELPS Teacher % |
---|---|---|---|---|
Kindergarten | 100% | 100% | N/A | 100% |
The materials meet the criteria for this indicator. Materials include systematic, year-long plans for phonics instruction.
Materials include a cohesive, TEKS-aligned scope and sequence that outlines the essential knowledge and skills that are taught throughout the year. Materials clearly demonstrate vertical alignment that shows the progression of skill development from year to year. Lessons follow a developmentally appropriate, systematic progression from simple to more complex concepts (e.g., CVC words before CCCVCC words and single-syllable words before multisyllabic words).
Evidence includes but is not limited to:
Materials include a cohesive, TEKS-aligned scope and sequence that outlines the essential knowledge and skills that are taught throughout the year.
Each grade level provides a detailed Foundational Skills Scope and Sequence. The scope and sequence chart is categorized by module, week, and foundational skill. Two of the skills that are listed in the chart are phonics and phonological awareness. In kindergarten, the scope and sequence for phonics begins with alphabet knowledge, which includes learning to identify and form letters before moving into letter/sounds, then learning blends and digraphs, and finally learning the VCV and VCVe vowel patterns. For phonological awareness, the chart indicates that lessons begin with identifying words in sentences, identifying rhymes, segmenting and blending syllables, and segmenting, blending, and isolating phonemes. The scope and sequence chart also indicates that for phonological awareness, students work on manipulating syllables and phonemes by deleting, isolating, blending, changing, or adding.
The Teacher’s Guide provides a TEKS document that identifies the TEKS and lists a column for student materials and teacher materials. This document lists the resource and page number in which the TEKS is taught. For example, the chart lists literacy centers such as Module 1, Word Work TEKS K.2D (iii) and K.2D(v).
Materials clearly demonstrate vertical alignment and that shows the progression of skill development from year to year.
In grade K, phonological awareness skills include manipulating individual phonemes by adding, deleting, changing, blending, or isolating. In grade 1, students begin phonological skills with a review of manipulating syllables before they manipulate phonemes. Additionally, the materials provide a Priority Standards Pathways document that highlights grade-level standards/skills and resources that can be used to accelerate student learning. This document helps teachers focus on the most critical areas of instruction to accelerate student learning.
The Grade K: Foundational Skills Scope and Sequence states that the last module, Module 9, is a review of consonants and short vowels, consonant blends and short vowels, digraphs and short vowels, and consonants and long vowels. Grade 1 begins with a review of consonant sounds and short vowels. In Module 1, Module 2, and Module 3 of Grade 1: Foundational Skills Scope and Sequence, students review consonants and short vowels before moving into final double consonant blends and digraphs.
The lesson plans start at the beginning of the year review and build upon the previous year’s lessons. For example, kindergarten phonological awareness lessons end with adding and substituting phonemes. In grade 1, Module 1, students review letter-sound relationships within CVC words and how to create new words by changing letters.
The materials include an Into Reading Alignment Chart that shows all of the foundational skills taught in each unit of each grade level so that teachers can see what students should know when they start the year and what they need to know before the end of the school year to be prepared for next year. This chart includes phonological awareness and phonics skills.
Lessons follow a developmentally appropriate, systematic progression from simple to more complex concepts (e.g., CVC words before CCCVCC words and single-syllable words before multisyllabic words).
Kindergarten lesson objectives begin with phonemic awareness, letter names, and letter sounds (starting with short vowel sounds) and transition to decoding and encoding VC, CVC, and CCVC before CVCC words as new phoneme-grapheme correspondences are introduced.
The Foundational Skills Scope and Sequence of phonological awareness follows the systematic path of sentence awareness to whole words and finally to phonemes. Students start off identifying words in a sentence, then move to rhyming, and then work with syllables (identifying, blending, segmenting). Next, they begin working with the onset and rhyme of words before moving into identifying initial, final, and medial sounds in words. Students finish the grade by working on phonemes in words by blending, segmenting, deleting, and substituting phonemes in words.
Kindergarten lesson objectives begin with an emphasis on alphabet knowledge and commonly used consonants such as m, s, t, b, and short vowel a. This is found in the Foundational Scope and Sequence. Students build on prerequisite skills as they transition from VC, CVC, CCVC, and CVCC words as new phoneme-grapheme correspondences are introduced. VCE patterns are introduced in Module 8. This goes beyond the kindergarten TEKS requirements.
The materials meet the criteria for this indicator. Materials provide direct (explicit) and systematic instruction in developing grade-level phonics skills within and across lessons.
Lessons include detailed guidance for each component of the gradual release of responsibility model. Materials contain a teacher edition with ample and useful annotations and suggestions on how to present the content in the student materials.
Evidence includes but is not limited to:
Lessons include detailed guidance for each component of the gradual release of responsibility mode.
a.) The script says, “Say the letter name and sound. Display Alphabet Card Kk.” The teacher says the letter name and has the children repeat it chorally: “This is uppercase K and lowercase k. What letter? (K) Say it with your kind voice. Now silly voices. (k).” The script says, "Ask children to repeat the sound and keyword using CHORAL RESPONSE.” The teacher says, "The letter K makes the sound /k/ as in kangaroo. Repeat after me: /k/ (/k/) kangaroo (kangaroo) K as in kangaroo (K as in kangaroo) /k/ /k/ kangaroo (/k/ /k/ kangaroo).”
b.) The script says, “Share names that begin with the letter k. Ask children to stand if their name begins with k.” The teacher says, “Kyla and Kwame start with k.” The script says, “Write the names and underline the K. Read the names aloud together. Use classroom objects if there are no names that begin with the letter.” The teacher guides the students to underline the letter.
c.) The script says, “Teach the uppercase letter strokes. Point to the letter and ask children to say its name chorally.” The teacher says, "What is the name of this letter? (K) What letter, Kate? (K) Bradley? (K) Everyone? (K).” The script continues, “Model how to write uppercase K on the board as you describe the strokes.” The teacher says, "Start at the top. Pull down straight. Lift to the top. Slant left. Slant right.”
2.) In We Do It, the script says, “Have children repeat the strokes chorally while they first ‘write’ the letter in the air and then ‘write’ the letter in the palm of their hands. Use Write and Reveal to have children form the letter on small dry-erase boards.” The script says, "Teach the lowercase letter strokes. Repeat the steps for lowercase k by modeling the letter and having children practice writing it in the air, in their palms, and on dry- erase boards” The teacher says, “Start at the top. Pull down straight. Lift to the middle. Slant left. Slant right.”
3.) Finally, in You Do It, the script says, “Practice printing the letters. Use Know It, Show It: Have children circle their best-printed letters independently. Review the letter name, sound, and keyword.” The teacher says, “We learned the letter k makes the sound /k/ as in kangaroo. What letter? ‘(K)’ Blow a kiss.”
For example, in Module 4, Lesson 7, Phonics, the lesson provides specific instructions and script for a guided release of responsibility.
1.) In I Do It, the script says “write nail, and use the Continuous Blending routine to model blending the word using Letter Cards n, ai, l.” For the first part of this section, the teacher “display(s) Letter Cards as shown” (Materials show Letter Cards /n/ /ai/ /l/). The materials instruct the teacher to “say the letters and sounds” and then “sweep {their} hand below the letters. As {they} point to each Letter Card, slowly blend each sound. Then read the word naturally: /n/ /ā/ /l/, nail.” The teacher then “guide(s) children to blend the sounds and pronounce the word.” The teacher says, “Blend the word with me: /n/ /ā/ /l/, nail.” The materials state to “continue with basic. Model blending one syllable at a time, and then combine the syllables to say the word.”
2.) During the We Do It section of the lesson, students read the words mail, male, raise, rays, bagel, okay, raisin, and crayon, and the materials guide the students to discuss how the words are alike and how they are different. The teacher is to “prompt children to notice the open and closed syllable patterns.”
3.) Finally, in the You Do It section, the materials state to “challenge” students “to add two more words to the ai and ay lists” and “compare their lists” or “children (can) complete Know It, Show It.”
Materials contain a teacher edition with ample and useful annotations and suggestions on how to present the content in the student materials.
Correct and Redirect sections can be found in the modules to help scaffold the learning or give a suggestion of how else to teach the concepts to ensure students are correctly responding to the learning. An example of this would be, "If children need support matching the initial letter in the name to the letters on the top of the chart, cover up the other letters in the name. Which letter matches this one?”
The teacher edition includes Teacher Tips, which are found in the margins. In Module 2, Lesson 9, a Teacher Tip says, “Rhyme time! Have children TURN AND TALK to identify the rhyming words in the poem.” In Module 4, Lesson 3, another tip says, “Make it fun! Use a puppet to support children with blending sounds to make words. 'Our puppet, Daisy, only knows how to say words in parts. Your job is to help me figure out what word she is trying to say. Listen: /b/ /ŭg/ . She’s trying to say, bug!’” In Module 7, Lesson 12, a Teacher Tip says, “It's also a middle sound! Have children think about words that have the /th/ sound in the middle, for example, feather.” Finally, in Module 8, a Teacher Tip says, “Soft start! Tell children that the magic e makes c and g soft even at the beginning of a word, such as in the words cell and gem."
The materials meet the criteria for this indicator. Materials include detailed guidance that supports teacher’s delivery of instruction.
Guidance for teachers includes information about common phonics pattern misconceptions and guiding principles related to specific phonics skills. Guidance for teachers provides detailed, specific instructional strategies for teaching each phonics skill. Materials include specific guidance for providing students with immediate, corrective feedback. Materials provide detailed guidance for connecting previously taught phonics skills to new learning. Materials include clear guidance on how to pace each lesson, but there are no specific time suggestions for each component of the gradual release model.
Evidence includes but is not limited to:
Guidance for teachers includes information about common phonics pattern misconceptions and guiding principles related to specific phonics skills.
The materials include information for teachers about common misconceptions related to specific phonics skills. The Module 3 opener includes Implementation Support for blending instruction. For example, the Teacher's Guide directs the teacher to "make sure not to add a vowel sound after consonant sounds (buh for /b/, puh for /p/).
Phonics lessons focus on sounding out words and decoding each phoneme in the word, not using the initial sound, picture, or context to guess words. For example, the Teacher’s Guide prompts the teacher to say, "Let's learn about words that begin with two consonants so we will be sure to pay attention to every letter in a word. Some words begin with consonant s and another consonant. The consonants are together, but you still hear both of their sounds.” As stated in the Teacher’s Guide, “Tell children that every letter matters.” If you overlook just one letter, skunk could become sunk.
The Articulation Videos model for both teachers and students how to make the correct sounds (without adding the schwa sound) along with the appropriate placement of teeth, tongue, and lips for each sound.
The materials include an explanation or overview of the instructional routines used consistently throughout the program. The Teacher’s Guide in each module includes a Teaching with Instructional Routines section, where the “focus routine” for the module is explained in detail. Each routine overview includes the routine purpose and materials needed, with an example of the Routine in Action. For example, in Module 3, teachers are directed to “use the Blending: Sound-by-Sound routine to explicitly teach small groups or the whole class to blend words with a target short vowel, consonant blend, or consonant digraph.” The routine materials include Letter Cards and a pocket chart. Per the lesson script, teachers refer to the Routine in Action for each routine step and “model language” for instruction. For example, in step 3, teachers will “add the final letter and blend; 'Sound? (/t/) Blend. (/sssiiit/)'" while "scooping" their index finger underneath the letters. Once introduced, the routine is used throughout the model as students build decoding skills.
Materials provide an Instructional Routines resource that provides access to an overview of the nine kindergarten instructional routines that allows teachers to learn how to effectively implement them. Each of the instructional routines provides a purpose. The nine routines included are Active Viewing, Discussion, Vocabulary, Letter Knowledge, Letter Sounds, Words to Know, Blending: Sound-by-Sound, Choral Reading, and Echo Reading. Additionally, this resource provides Letter Cards that students may use to practice decoding. For example, the Choral Reading routine steps are: “Read along with the text, read aloud together, and listen as you read.” This can be done with a short sentence as students work on reading words with new sound-spelling patterns. Additionally, Echo Reading steps include reading along as the teacher displays a short text. The teacher says, “Let’s pretend we’re in a cave, and you all are my echo. So, when I pause, everyone repeats what I read at the same time.”
Both kindergarten and grade 1 utilize Letter Cards when working through Sound-by-Sound Blending to sound through and decode/read words. For example, in Module 9, Lesson 4, students look at Letter Cards and blend fin, fan, and man.
Materials include specific guidance for providing students with immediate, corrective feedback.
The Correct and Redirect section after each phonics skill taught in the teacher edition helps with the Phonological Awareness sections, which may be more age-appropriate and set up later success in phonics. For example, in Module 4, Lesson 13, Foundational Skills, Phonological Awareness: Blend Phonemes into Words, the Correct and Redirect example is "CORRECT AND REDIRECT If children need support with blending sounds, practice blending two-phoneme words before trying three phonemes again. Suggested two-phoneme words: hay, he, high, lay, lie, low."
The materials provide specific examples of how to provide immediate, corrective feedback. For example, the lesson plans contain a Correct and Redirect information box or section for each phonics lesson. In Module 7, Lesson 6, teachers are directed to provide support to students having difficulty reading the Words to Know (HFW). It says, "If children have difficulty reading Words to Know, remind them to look for known sound-spellings."
Materials provide a Correct and Redirect section within the lessons. An example of a Correct and Redirect recommendation may be, "T support children who blend incorrectly and to model the task by saying the sounds more and more closely together.” An example is included in Module 6, Lesson 7: “If children need support isolating medial vowel sounds, draw out the middle sound as you say the word. The teacher will say, ‘Listen: feet. What sound? (/E/).’”
Materials provide detailed guidance for connecting previously taught phonics skills to new learning.
The materials provide detailed guidance for connecting previously taught phonics skills to newly taught ones. For example, after learning to decode words with short vowel sounds and consonant blends in Module 6, Lesson 11, the instructional routine for decodable readers in Lesson 19 begins with a quick review of Words to Read (clip, snag, stands, step), which will be in the text and which students have previously learned. Then, the teacher's instructions say, “Guide the group to use Choral Reading to read each page.”
In Module 6, Lesson 16, Foundational Skills, Phonics: Review Short Vowels and Consonant Blends, the teacher script starts with, “Tell children they will be reviewing short vowels and consonant blends” before the students and teachers chorally say the sound for the letters in the rows on the projected Display and Engage page.
The lessons use the previously learned skills to build on them. For example, the Teacher’s Guide prompts the teacher to say, “We already learned that the letter a can make the sound /ă/ as in alligator. Today we're going to learn another sound that a can make.” The guide may also direct the teacher to say, "We already learned that the letter i can make the sound /Ῐ/ as in inchworm. Today we're going to learn another sound that i can make.” This is in Module 8, Lesson 4.
Materials include clear guidance on how to pace each lesson, including specific time suggestions for each component of the gradual release model.
Each section of the materials contains an image of a clock showing the length of time to be spent teaching that skill each day. For example, the phonemic awareness timestamp is 10 minutes, the phonics timestamp is 15 minutes, the word work timestamp is 10 minutes, and the words to know timestamp is 15 minutes. This is found in each lesson throughout the modules.
The materials include guidance on the recommended length for each lesson. The Week at a Glance section shows the recommended daily schedule with time allotments:
Reading and Vocabulary: 15–30 minutes
Foundational Skills: 40-50 minutes
Writing Workshop: 30-45 minutes
Small-Group Instruction: 45-60 minutes
The HMH Intro Reading Texas Overview document breaks down time for the program as 15-20 minutes for whole-group mini lessons, 45-60 minutes for small-group and independent work, and 5 minutes for a wrap-up.
The Welcome Into Reading document breaks down time for the program as whole group instruction containing 15-30 minutes spent on foundational skills and an additional 50-75 minutes covering Knowledge/Language, Reading Workshop, and Writing Workshop. 45-60 minutes of a cycle should be spent on independent practice, collaborative work, and teacher-led small group time, with an additional 5 minutes for a wrap-up.
The materials meet the criteria for this indicator. Materials include frequent and distributed review of phonics skills with cumulative practice opportunities with decodable text.
Materials include intentional cumulative review and practice activities throughout the span of the curriculum. Practice opportunities only include phonics skills that have been explicitly taught. Decodable texts incorporate cumulative practice of taught phonics skills.
Evidence includes but is not limited to:
Materials include intentional cumulative review and practice activities throughout the span of the curriculum.
blend words. In this routine, students use their index finger to scoop under the letters and blend. Additionally, materials provide Display and Engage resources that students use routinely to practice speed reading.
Materials for kindergarten include intentional cumulative review and practice activities throughout the span of the curriculum. In the Teacher’s Guide, Welcome to the Module, there is a Teaching with Instructional Routines section, which lists several routines: Letter Knowledge, Letter Sounds, Blending: Sound-by-Sound, and Decodable Text. The Letter Sound routine suggests to “guide children to practice pronouncing a target sound-spelling and connecting the letter(s) and sound.” For example, in Module 4, Lesson 6, Phonics: Short and Long o instructs the teacher to “use the LETTER SOUNDS routine below to teach short o and long o.” It informs the teacher to “introduce the short vowel sound” and then “display Alphafriend Card: Ozzie Octopus.” The teacher says, “The sound /ŏ/ is the sound at the beginning of the word octopus. The letter o can make the sound /ŏ/. What sound? (/ŏ/) What letter? (o).”
Review of previously taught phonemes and graphemes are noted in the Kindergarten Foundational Skills Scope and Sequence. For example, short vowels, consonants, and consonant blends are reviewed in Module 4. Short vowels, consonants, double final consonants, final –ck, and digraphs are reviewed in Module 7. In Module 9, consonant, consonant blends, digraphs, short vowels, and long vowels are reviewed.
Practice opportunities include only phonics skills that have been explicitly taught.
to them and say the corresponding sound. Students continue practicing by pointing to the left of the word and quickly scooping their index finger under each card and reading it. The lessons offer a list of suggested words for students to practice reading words with digraphs sh and ch. These words include chat, check, chop, ship, and shut.
In Module 9, Lesson 3, the teacher explicitly reviews words that start with a vowel or consonant by using the Al Alligator and Benny Bear Alphafriend Cards in a pocket chart. Next, the children are guided to come up with words that start with a vowel or consonant, and the teacher writes these words on an index card. Then, the students sort words by the beginning sound to determine if the words start with a vowel or consonant (words such as egg, igloo, up, fish, jog, queen).
Students apply the focus skill for the lesson or skills from previous lessons during guided and independent practice. In Module 9, Lesson 13, after an explicit lesson on digraphs, the students sort words without digraphs, such as hop, cat, hut, ten (taught explicitly earlier in the year), and words with digraphs, such as shop, chat, shut, then.
Decodable texts incorporate cumulative practice of taught phonics skills.
Decodable texts for kindergarten incorporate cumulative practice of taught phonics skills. Many iRead Decodables are available with the instructional materials. For example, “Decodable Book Bob at Bat features words with final b /b/" and has students "using letter-sound relationships to decode, including VC, CVC, CCVC, and CVCC words.” Another example is “Decodable Book Can Sam?” that features words with short vowel a and consonants m, s, t and includes “using letter-sound relationships to decode, including VC, CVC, CCVC, and CVCC words.” Teachers can use these after teaching short vowels in Module 8, where all short vowels are reviewed, and in Module 9, where vowel patterns are reviewed.
Start Right Readers (such as “Mac the Cat”), iRead books (such as “You Can”), and printables (such as “The Cap”) all contain decodable text based on skill in the lesson. These resources are aligned with the Kindergarten Foundational Scope and Sequence in regard to containing words aligned with the phonic skills being taught. In Module 2, Lesson 19, the Start Right Reader predecodable text “Mac the Cat” is used in the lesson for Choral Reading. This text contains words with the phonics concept of the lesson, words with c and p, along with Words to Know (high-frequency words: am, I, is, my, no, see, the, you, can).
The materials meet the criteria for this indicator. Materials provide systematic and direct (explicit) instruction, practice, and review related to alphabet knowledge.
Materials provide a research-based, systematic sequence for introducing letter names and their corresponding sounds. Materials provide scripted and direct (explicit) instruction for teaching the identification of all 26 letters (upper and lowercase) and their corresponding sounds. Materials provide direct (explicit) instruction on forming the 26 letters (upper and lowercase). Materials incorporate a variety of activities and resources for students to develop, practice, and reinforce (through cumulative review) alphabet knowledge in isolation and in the context of meaningful print.
Evidence includes but is not limited to:
Materials provide a research-based, systematic sequence for introducing letter names and their corresponding sounds.
In the Additional Resources section, there is a Foundational Skills Scope and Sequence. This chart is organized by module and week, with a column devoted to phonics. In Module 1, Lesson 4, students begin learning the letter-sound combinations. In the first three modules, students learn consonants (m, s, t, b, n, d, c, p, r, f), and short vowels (a and i). Modules 4-6 teach consonants (g, k, l, h, w, j, v, y, q, x, z), short vowels ( o, u, e), initial consonant blends (st, sp, sl, sn, cl, fl), and final blends (st, nd). Modules 7-9 teach double final consonants, digraphs (sh, ch, th, wh), and long vowels.
The Kindergarten Foundational Skills Scope and Sequence shows that the first three weeks of the program focus on identifying and forming letters. Week 1 covers Aa-Ff, week 2 covers Gg-Pp, and week 3 covers Qq-Zz.
The students learn two letters/sounds or a vowel sound each week following the first 3 weeks. The letter/sound learning begins with m /m/, s /s/, t /t/, b /b/, and short a. Once these letters/sounds are introduced, decoding and encoding of words containing these letters can begin, such as bat, Sam, mat, sat.
The Guiding Principles and Strategies, grade K document, Professional Learning RESEARCH FOUNDATIONS says, “Phonics (is) an approach to teaching beginning reading that emphasizes letter-sound relationships as the path to efficient word recognition.” — Cunningham & Zibulsky (2014).
Materials provide scripted direct (explicit) instruction for teaching the identification of all 26 letters (upper and lowercase) and their corresponding sounds.
In Module 1, Lesson 4, the teacher displays Letter Cards for /d/ and directs students to “say the sound in a deep voice and then in a whisper voice.” Then the teacher directs students to stand “if their name begins with that letter.” These instructions are in italics for the teacher to locate at a glance. Next, the teacher instructs students to “write the upper and lower case letter, then practice the sound with a partner.” Students can write the letter and practice sounds individually using the Know It, Show It printable.
In Module 1, Lesson 5, Foundational Skills, Alphabet Knowledge Cc Identify and Form Letters: Cc, the script says, “Use the Letter Knowledge routine below to teach children the letters. Say the letter name and sound. Display Alphabet Card Cc. Say the letter name and have children repeat it chorally.” The teacher says, “This is uppercase C and lowercase c. What letter? (C). Say it with calm voices. (C). Now wild voices. (C)." The script says, “ Ask children to repeat the sound and keyword using CHORAL RESPONSE.” The teacher says, “The letter C can make the sound /k/ as in cat. Repeat after me: /k/ (/k/) cat (cat) C as in cat (C as in cat) /k/ /k/ cat (/k/ /k/ cat).” The script says, “Share names that begin with the letter. Ask children to stand if their name begins with C.” The teacher says, “Carrie and Carter start with C. Cindy starts with C too, but the C makes a different sound: /s/.” The script says, “Write the names and underline the C. Read the names aloud together. Use classroom objects if there are no names that begin with the letter.”
The materials include specific and precise terms, phrasing, and statements that teachers can use during core instruction. The Module 3 Teacher’s Guide directs teachers to “use precise language for blending. For example, say ‘/f/ sound’ and not ‘f sound’ since f is a letter and not a sound.”
Materials provide direct (explicit) instruction on forming the 26 letters (upper and lowercase).
In Module 1, Lesson 5, after teaching the letter C and the sound of C, the teacher teaches the uppercase letter strokes. The script says, “Point to the letter and ask children to say its name chorally.” The teacher says, “What is the name of this letter? (C) What letter, Caitlyn? (C) Jose? (C) Everyone? (C)" The script says, “Model how to write uppercase C on the board as you describe the strokes.” The teacher says, “Start just below the top. Curve back and around.” The script says, “Have children repeat the strokes chorally while they first ‘write’ the letter in the air and then ‘write’ the letter in the palm of their hands. Use Write and Reveal to have children form the letter on small dry-erase boards. Teach the lowercase letter strokes. Repeat the steps for lowercase c by modeling the letter and having children practice writing it in the air, in their palms, and on dry-erase boards.” The teacher says, “Start just below the middle. Curve back and around.” The script says, “Practice printing the letters. Use Know It, Show It on page 8, where students practice forming Cc and have children circle their best printed letters. Review the letter name, sound, and keyword.” The teacher says, “We learned the letter C.”
In Module 1, Lesson 11, students write uppercase and lowercase q. The teacher models how to write uppercase Q and describes the strokes. The teacher says, “Start just below the top. Circle back. Lift to just above the bottom. Slant right.” The students repeat the strokes chorally while they first “write” the letter in the air and then “write” the letter in the palm of their hands. Additionally, the teacher uses Write and Reveal to have the students form the letter on small dry-erase boards. The teacher repeats the steps for lowercase q by modeling the letter and having children practice writing it in the air, in their palms, and on dry-erase boards. The teacher says, “Start just below the middle. Circle back. Pull down straight past the bottom and curve up short."
In Module 5, Lesson 6, students practice writing the letter v. The teacher instructions say to “Model how to write upper and lowercase Vv.” The teacher writes the letter in the air. The children write the letter in the air. The teacher is prompted to say, ”Repeat the letter name each time you write the letter. Make sure the slanted lines meet at the bottom as you write the letter V.” Have children use Know It, Show It on the top of page 125 to practice forming the letters.
Materials incorporate a variety of activities and resources for students to develop, practice, and reinforce (through cumulative review) alphabet knowledge in isolation and in context of meaningful print.
Materials for kindergarten incorporate a variety of activities and resources for students to develop, practice, and reinforce (through cumulative review) alphabet knowledge in isolation and in context of meaningful print. The materials include Know It, Show It to help students practice writing each letter of the alphabet. Materials use the Alphabet Cards for multiple activities, such as for identifying and naming the sounds of letters. For example, in Alphabet Card Dd, the teacher “say(s) the letter name and (has) children repeat it chorally.” The teacher says, “This is uppercase D and lowercase d. What letter? (D) Say it with deep voices. (D) Now whisper voices. (D)” Materials also include an Alphabet Knowledge Review, which uses the Alphabet Cards to review identifying the letters. The materials guide the teacher to “display each Alphabet Card, say the letter name, and ask children to repeat the letter name.”
In Module 1, Lesson 3, the instructional materials prompt the teacher to then use the Project Display and Engage: Alphabet Knowledge 1.1b to review upper and lowercase letters a, b, c, and d. The teacher is to “point to the letters from left to right and have children name them chorally,” and also to “point to letters at random and choose children to name the letters aloud.” The Know It, Show It for this lesson is also a review of the uppercase and lowercase letters a, b, c, and d, where students color sections of a picture by a specific color for each letter; letter Aa should be colored red; the letter Bb, blue; the letter Cc, green; and Dd, yellow. In Module 1, Lesson 4, Read Predecodable Text, students “use the Predecodable Text routine below to read Cc–Ff.” In this routine, the teacher introduces a Start Right Reader, and the materials prompt the teacher to “have partners THINK-PAIR-SHARE to give ideas: What do you see that begins with the letter c sound /k/.” Then, students identify items on each page that begin with a specific letter, such as on page 14 for the letter d, where students identify that there is a picture of a door and then read the words below the picture. On page 15, students see two pictures of desks and then read the words desks below the images.
In module 5, Lesson 11, students use the Letter Sounds routine to identify and match short e and long e. The teacher displays the Alphafriend Card: Ethal Elephant. The teacher says, “The sound /ĕ/ is the sound at the beginning of the word elephant. The letter e makes the sound /ĕ/. What sound? (/e/) What letter? (e).” Then the teacher plays the Alphafriend Video, and students stretch out their arms when they hear the name Ethel Elephant. To model how to write lowercase and uppercase e, students complete Know It, Show It practice. As students practice forming each letter, they say the letter name each time they write it.
In Module 6, Lesson 6, the teacher plays the Alphafriends Video, which shows the uppercase and lowercase letter Oo and has a video of Ozzie the Octopus and a story about words with long o and short o reviewing the sounds long o and short o make and words that contain each.
The materials meet the criteria for this indicator. Materials provide systematic and direct (explicit) instruction, practice, and review related to the alphabetic principle.
Materials systematically introduce letter-sound relationships in an order that quickly allows for application to basic decoding and encoding. Materials provide scripted direct (explicit) instruction for connecting phonemes to letters within words. Materials incorporate a variety of activities and resources for students to develop, practice, and reinforce (through cumulative review) their understanding of applying letter-sound correspondence to decode simple words both in isolation and in connected text.
Evidence includes but is not limited to:
Materials systematically introduce letter-sound relationships in an order that quickly allows for application to basic decoding and encoding.
In the Additional Resources section, there is a Foundational Skills Scope and Sequence. It is a chart by module and week with a column devoted to phonics. In Module 1, Lesson 4, students begin learning the letter-sound combinations. In the first three modules, students learn consonants (m, s, t, b, n, d, c, p, r, f) and short vowels (a and i). Modules 4-6 teach consonants (g, k, l, h, w, j, v, y, q, x, z), short vowels ( o, u, e), initial consonant blends (st, sp, sl, sn, cl, fl), and final blends (st, nd). Modules 7-9 teach double final consonants, digraphs (sh, ch, th, wh), and long vowels.
In Module 2, week 2, Lesson 6, students learn the long and short sounds of a. In Lesson 7, students begin blending sounds for the first time to make words. At this point in the program, they know the consonants m, s, t, and b. Students blend the words at and am, and the following day, they blend the words sat and tab. In Module 3, Lesson 1, students learn the short vowel sound of i. At this point in the program, students know the additional consonants n, d, k, and p. Students blend the word sit in Lesson 2, and in Lesson 3, they blend a list of twelve words that have short a and i vowel sounds including pin, dip, bit, cap, and mad. A new vowel is introduced approximately every two weeks.
Materials provide scripted direct (explicit) instruction for connecting phonemes to letters within words.
Materials for kindergarten provide scripted direct (explicit) instruction for connecting phonemes to letters within words. For example, in Module 5, week 1, Lesson 1, the instructional materials guide the teacher to “model how to blend phonemes to make a word.” The teacher says, “I will say all the sounds in a word. Listen: /r/ /u/ /g/. When I put the sounds together, I get the word rug.” The teacher is then to “reveal the Picture Card rug.” Next, the teacher “say(s) a familiar one-syllable word sound-by-sound,” and then says, “Listen: /k/ /u/ /p/” and has “children use Choral Response to blend the phonemes.” The teacher continues with “What word? (cup)” and then “reveal(s) the Picture Card after children respond.” The following phonics lesson, Word Work lesson, and Words to Know lesson all focus on the short and long sounds of the letter u.
In Module 6, Lesson 6, Foundations Skills, Phonics: Initial Blends st, sp, sl, sn, the teacher explains that they are going to learn about words that begin with two consonants so they will be sure to pay attention to every letter in a word. The teacher says, “Some words begin with consonant s and another consonant and that the consonants are together but you still hear both of their sounds.” The lesson begins with the teacher saying several familiar words with consonant blends while children repeat them chorally. “Let’s say some words and the sounds each consonant blend makes. Notice how each word begins with the consonant s and another consonant.” This lesson is followed by Word Work and Words to Know lessons, where children work with initial blends such as stop, snake, and slide.
In Module 6, Lesson 12, The Phonological Awareness lesson focuses on words with blends such as nest, hand, and toast. In the Phonics section, students use a Sound-by-Sound routine to blend words with cl, fl, st, and nd. The Teacher's Guide directs the teacher to display Letter Card f and point to it. The teacher says, “What is the letter? (f) What sound? (/f/).” The teacher adds the letter l and says, “What sound?” (/l/).” The teacher uses the precise term “blend” in the script: “Scoop your index finger under the letters as children blend the sounds. Blend. (/ffflllaaa/).”
Materials incorporate a variety of activities and resources for students to develop, practice, and reinforce (through cumulative review) their understanding of applying letter-sound correspondence to decode simple words both in isolation and in connected text.
Starting in Module 1, each module has Printable Letter Game procedures. One game that can be printed is called “How to Do a Spelling Sort.” The instructions direct students to cut out words, read the words, and glue the words back together. This activity includes both decoding and encoding. The activity is open-ended and can be applied to any words the students are learning that week, such as pat, cat, or Mac.
Each module has Read and Spell cards that students can complete to practice spelling. The Module 1 cards begin with the and progress into blending words such as cap. The students practice by writing the words on the cards, blending sounds, and segmenting sounds.
In the phonics lessons, Letter Cards are utilized by teachers and students to encode and decode words through phonics skills taught in a Sound-by-Sound Blending routine.
In Module 5, Lesson 1, the teacher introduces initial blends with l. To identify relationships between sounds and letters, the teacher uses Picture Cards (fly, sloth), printables (Manuscript Mm, Nn; Word List 13), and Know It, Show It. In this lesson, the teacher administers a pretest, and if children do well, they are assigned the Challenge Words. A Teacher Tip is provided at the end of the lesson stating, "Explain that if children know how to spell flap, they can spell clap, gap, lap, map, nap, rap, sap, and tap.”
In Module 6, Lesson 4, Foundational Skills, Phonics: Consonant Blends, the teacher tells students they will build words with consonant blends using precut letters from Printable: Build Words 6.3. The teacher says the word flap, and the children repeat it chorally. The teacher models how to spell the word in a pocket chart using Letter Cards and asks the children to spell the word with their letters. The teachers then give directions to change certain letters (e.g., consonant blends, beginning sounds, ending sounds, etc.) to make the words clap, cap, cat, cast, and last.
In Module 9, Lesson 7, Foundational Skills, Phonics: Review Forming Letters and Blending Words, the teacher plays a reading game with the children by naming a letter in the word, letter by letter. The children write the letter, and then the word is read together. The children use the Write and Reveal procedures to practice forming the letter and saying the sound. Once all the letters have been said by the teacher and written/sounded out by the children, the children blend the sounds to read the word. This procedure is completed with the words: clap, step, snap, wind, must, and slot.
The materials meet the criteria for this indicator. Materials provide systematic and direct (explicit) instruction, practice, and review to support the development of oral syllable awareness skills, as outlined in the TEKS.
Materials provide a systematic sequence for introducing oral syllable awareness activities that begins with simple skills (detecting, blending, and segmenting syllables) and gradually transition to more complex skills such as adding, deleting, and substituting syllables. Materials include scripted direct (explicit) instruction for teaching oral syllable awareness skills. Materials incorporate a variety of activities and resources for students to develop, practice, and reinforce skills (through cumulative review).
Evidence includes but is not limited to:
Materials provide a systematic sequence for introducing oral syllable awareness activities that begins with simple skills (detecting, blending, and segmenting syllables) and gradually transition to more complex skills such as adding, deleting, and substituting syllables.
The materials provide a systematic sequence for introducing oral syllable awareness activities. For example, kindergarten lessons begin identifying syllables at the beginning of the year, in Module 1. Later, in Module 2, the lessons add blending and segmenting syllables. Finally, students manipulate syllables by adding, deleting, and substituting syllables in Modules 8 and 9.
The Foundational Skills Scope and Sequence has a column devoted to phonological awareness. In this column, you can see the systematic sequence for introducing oral syllable awareness. In Module 1, the focus is on identifying and blending syllables; in Module 2, the focus moves to segmenting syllables; in Module 8, the focus shifts to adding and deleting syllables. In Module 8, Lesson 17, students “add syllables.” For example, they are instructed to say oat and then “add meal onto the end of oat” to make the word oatmeal. In Lesson 18 of Module 8, students “delete syllables.” For example, students say bookshelf, and then are instructed to “say bookshelf without the shelf.”
Materials include scripted direct (explicit) instruction for teaching oral syllable awareness skills.
Materials provide scripted guidance for each of the syllable awareness skills. For example, for syllable identification in Module 1, Lesson 13, the materials direct the teacher to “model how to count syllables in a word.” Per the lesson script, the teacher says, “I can clap to count the syllables, or beats, in a word. Listen: snowflake. I clapped twice because there are two syllables in snowflake.” The teacher is directed to “repeat the process with words such as sun(1), bedroom(2), and sailboat(2)” with student responses for guided practice.
In Module 1, Lesson 16, Foundational Skills, Phonological Awareness, Identify Syllables: Clap or Stomp, the script says, “Tell children they will be playing a syllable-counting game.” The teacher says, “I will say a word, and you will count the syllables. Listen: butterfly. There are three syllables in butterfly.” The script says, “Give students a familiar compound word and ask them to stomp the syllables.” Then the teacher says, “Listen: sandbox (sand-box) How many stomps? (2) How many syllables? (2)” The script indicates to “repeat with the words below, alternating between clapping and stomping: bathtub (2), classmate (2), afternoon (3), backpack (2), applesauce (3), playground (2).”
In Module 2, Lesson 16, Foundational Skills, Phonological Awareness, Blend Syllables into Words, Step and Jump, the script says, “Tell children that they will be playing a blending game.” The teacher says, “I am going to say a word broken into syllables. I will take a step for each syllable and then jump to say the word. Listen: spe-cial. Special!” The script says, “Have the children line up and say a familiar word broken into syllables.” The teacher says, “Listen: ce-le-brate.” The script says, ”Tell them to use Choral Response as they step and jump to blend the word.” The teacher says, “What word? Celebrate.” Repeat with the words: awe-some (awesome), won-der- ful (wonderful), a-ma-zing (amazing), un-u-su-al (unusual), mar-vel-ous (marvelous), in-cred-i-ble (incredible).
In Module 2, Lesson 20, use the Daily Show and Teach Slides. Slide 6 begins by telling students: “Let’s play with the sounds in words!” Slide 7 reviews hand movements for blending syllables. Slide 8 is a blending game, and the teacher is instructed to say, “We are going to play a blending game! Listen to my clue and figure out what I am. You can also find a clue in the pictures. Okay, listen: I wear a special suit and my sounds are as-tro-naut. (astronaut) Good job! Do you see (a) picture of an astronaut floating in space?” The teacher instructions then give clues with the broken-down syllables for apple, umbrella, bubble, ladder, rabbit, and sandwich.
In Module 5, Lesson 1, the teacher is directed to use a Break Words Into Syllables page with students as needed. The teacher reads these directions: “Clap parts of the word to break it into syllables. See the word picture and clap for words such as doghouse, pancake, and sandbox.”
In Module 8, Lesson 16, the materials direct the teacher to “model how to add a syllable to make a new word.” Per the lesson script, the teacher says, “I will say a word and then add a syllable to make a new word. When I add –bow to the end of rain, I get the word: rainbow.” The teacher is directed to “repeat the process” with student responses for guided practice. Per the lesson script, the teacher says, “Say tea. (tea) Add –pot to the end of tea. (teapot). Say plane. (plane). Add air to the beginning of –plane. (airplane).”
Materials incorporate a variety of activities and resources for students to develop, practice, and cumulatively reinforce skills.
In Module 1, Lesson 13, students identify syllables in spoken words by clapping each syllable. The teacher models how to clap for syllables in each word. Students participate in Choral Response by clapping and counting the syllables in words. For English language support, the Teacher’s Guide prompts the teacher to use the Picture Cards provided in the materials to help students understand the meaning of the words.
In Module 2, Lesson 8, Foundational Skills, Segmenting Words Into Syllables: Guess What, the teacher draws part of a clue for each syllable the students segment. For example, sandbox– when the students say the syllable sand, the teacher draws part of the clue and then draws the other part of the clue when the students unblend the second syllable box.
In Module 9, Lesson 1, students add syllables to solve riddles about things they find in their homes. Per the lesson script, the teacher says, “Listen to my riddle: What can I use to heat food quickly? Add wave to the end of micro. When I add wave, I get the word microwave! The answer to the riddle is microwave!” The process is repeated with additional riddles, such as, “Where do you put a letter to send? Add mail to the beginning of box. (mailbox).”
The instructional materials utilize multisensory methods while working on identifying syllables by having the student clap or stomp the syllable while saying the words, such as butterfly, backpack, and pancake and hearing/counting the syllables. Movement is also utilized when blending syllables in words by stepping and jumping for each syllable in a word before blending the syllables together, such as won-der-ful is wonderful.
The materials meet the criteria for this indicator. Materials provide systematic and direct (explicit) instruction, practice, and review to support the development of phonemic awareness skills, as outlined in the TEKS.
Materials provide a systematic sequence for introducing phonemic awareness activities that begins with identifying, blending, and segmenting phonemes (the smallest unit of sound) and gradually transition to more complex manipulation practices such as adding, deleting, and substituting phonemes. Materials include scripted direct (explicit) instruction for teaching phonemic awareness. Materials include direct (explicit) detailed guidance for connecting phonemic awareness skills to the alphabetic principle, helping to transition students from oral language activities to basic decoding and encoding. Materials incorporate a variety of activities and resources for students to develop, practice, and reinforce skills (through cumulative review).
Evidence includes but is not limited to:
Materials provide a systematic sequence for introducing phonemic awareness activities that begins with identifying, blending, and segmenting phonemes (the smallest unit of sound) and gradually transition to more complex manipulation practices such as adding, deleting, and substituting phonemes.
Materials provide a systematic sequence for introducing phonemic awareness activities. For example, kindergarten lessons begin identifying the initial, final, and medial sounds in words at the beginning of the year, in Modules 3 and 4. Later, in Modules 4-6, the lessons gradually add blending phonemes into words and segmenting words into phonemes. Finally, students begin manipulating phonemes by adding, deleting, or substituting phonemes in Module 9.
Kindergarten begins with simpler phonological awareness activities before introducing phonemic awareness. In Module 1, week 1, students identify words in sentences by “hold(ing) up fingers to count the words in sentences.” Students identify how many words are in several sentences, such as “I can run,” and “I made a friend,” and in Lessons 3 and 4 of week 1, students identify whether pairs of words rhyme or not, such as girl, man (no) or coat, boat (yes). Then in Module 7, Lesson 14, students “segment words into sounds,” such as nest /n/ /e/ /s/ /t/ and mop /m/ /o/ /p/. In Module 9, Lesson 8, students delete phonemes, such as students say pant and then “take /t/ from the end of pant” to say pan and also say flips and then “take the /f/ from the beginning of flips” to say lips.
Materials provide a Foundational Skills chart that lists phonemic awareness activities in a systematic sequence. For example, in Module 2, Lesson 7, students blend spoken phonemes into words. Then, in Module 4, Lesson 16, students isolate and pronounce the initial phoneme in one-syllable words. By the final modules, such as Module 8, Lesson 12, students isolate and pronounce the medial vowel sound in one-syllable words. The phonemic awareness continuum is structured from least complex to more complex. All phonemic awareness activities are aligned to grade-level TEKS.
Materials include scripted direct (explicit) instruction for teaching phonemic awareness.
In Module 3, Lesson 11, Foundational Skills, Phonological Awareness: Identifying Final Sounds Cat in the Hat, the script says, “Tell children they will be identifying the final sound in words.” The teacher says, “Today we’re going to listen for the last sound in words.” The teacher asks students to draw a picture of a hat. The teacher says, “We can fill this hat with words that have the same ending sound as hat: /t/. Listen: cat. Does cat have the same ending sound as hat?” The script says, “Have children use thumbs up or thumbs down to respond. Then write or draw a cat in the hat. Repeat with the following words kite (yes), key (no), foot (yes), bug (no), bell (no), light (yes), chair (no), boot (yes), mitt (yes), hand (no).”
In Module 3, Lesson 15, Daily Show and Teach Slides, the teacher uses the PowerPoint with the following script: “Let’s warm up by changing a sound in a word to make a new word!”
“First, we’ll tap our finger on our palm for each sound in a word. Then, when we change a sound, we’ll tap again, but we’ll use our fist on our palm for the sound we change. The hands on the screen show us what to do.”
“I’ll do the first one. The word is tag. The script says, “Tap with one finger while saying each sound in the word.” The teacher says, “/t/, /ă/, /g/. I’m going to change the /t/ in tag to /s/.” The script says, “Do the movement again, this time tapping with a fist for the phoneme that changed.” The teacher says “/s/, /ă/, /g/. The new word is sag.”
The teacher says, “Now let’s all change a sound in a word to make a new word together. Remember to do the movement. Ready?
Sheep. Tap for each of the sounds in sheep. Now change the /p/ sound to /t/. What’s the new word? (sheet) Excellent! (continues with sing and job).”
In Module 4, Lesson 13, Foundational Skills, Phonological Awareness, Blend Phonemes into Words, the teacher says, “I will say all the sounds in a word. Listen: /l/ /ē/ /f/. When I put the sounds together, I get the word leaf.” The script says, “Reveal the Picture Card leaf. Say a familiar one-syllable word sound-by-sound.” The teacher says, “Listen: /h/ /ŭ/ /g/. What word? (hug)” The script says, “Reveal the Picture Card after children respond.” Repeat with the following words: /b/ /long i/ /k/ (bike), /h/ /short a/ /t/ (hat), /h/ /long o/ /z/ (hose), /k/ /long e/ /z/ (keys), /l/ /short o/ /k/ (lock), /l/ /short o/ /g/ (log).
In Module 7, week 3, Lesson 13, the teacher is instructed to “display Module Poster 7. Tell children you are going to play a segmenting game. ‘Listen: wheel. The sounds in wheel are /wh/ /ē/ /l/. Show me a silent thumb up when you spy a wheel in the poster.’ Choose a volunteer to say the sounds and identify the wheel. Name another item in the poster. ‘Listen: crab.’ Have children use Choral Response to say the word sound-by-sound. ‘What sounds? (/k/ /r/ /ă/ /b/) Show me a silent thumb up when you spy a crab in the poster.’ Have a volunteer identify the crab. Repeat with the words below. If children struggle to find the pictures, give hints so children know where to look.” Students continue to practice with the words boot, shell, chest, ship, frog, and top.
Materials include direct (explicit) detailed guidance for connecting phonemic awareness skills to the alphabetic principle, helping to transition students from oral language activities to basic decoding and encoding.
In Module 3, Lesson 10, Foundational Skills, students identify initial sounds of /f/ and /r/ during the Phonological Awareness part of the lesson. The teacher shows pictures of a fish and a rug and tells the children to point to the picture that has the same first sound as the words they hear. The teacher says, “Listen: fog. Does fog have the same beginning sound as fish or rug?” The teacher continues with other /f/ and /r/ words. Then the phonics lesson follows a dictation of spelling words with r and f. The script says, “Tell children that they will practice writing words with consonants r and f. Say the first word and have children repeat it chorally. Then say the word in a context sentence. Have children use Write and Reveal to write the word. Write the word on the board, and ask children to spell it chorally as you point to each letter. Tell children to check and correct their spelling.” The teacher says, “Remember, the letter r makes the sound /r/ as in rip.” The script says, “Repeat the process for the rest of the words.”
In Module 6, Lesson 11, students identify the consonant blend in a word spoken aloud before reading the words later in the lesson. Per the lesson script, the teacher says, “Let's say some words and the sounds each consonant blend makes. Notice how the consonant blend is at the beginning of each word. Say clap. (clap) What sounds? (/cl/) Say flag. (flag) What sounds? (/fl/).” Then the teacher is directed to “underline the consonant blend and ask children to say the sounds and read the word. What sounds? (/cl/) What word? (clap).”
Materials identify the objective to be learned and communicate it with the students. In Module 7, Lesson 9, the Teacher’s Guide reads, “Tell children they will be segmenting words into sounds.” The teacher then says, “When I say a word, you say the sounds and then blast up like a rocket to say the word.” The lesson continues by having the teacher model the activity. Then students use Choral Response to segment the sounds and jump up. The teacher says, “What sounds? (/z/ /oo/ /m/, zoom!).” The lesson provides six words to repeat the same activity. These words include chick, rise, ship, whiz, shop, and chat. The phonics lesson that follows focuses on digraphs sh and ch.
Materials incorporate a variety of activities and resources for students to develop, practice, and cumulatively reinforce skills.
color the picture on the page that matches the sounds they hear. For example, students hear /h/ /ǎ/ /t/ then color the picture hat; students hear /l/ /ē/ /f/ then color the leaf.
In Module 6, Lesson 1, students isolate and pronounce the final sound in one-syllable words. The teacher begins the lesson by modeling the activity and then using Picture Cards to reveal the word that is being used. Students reinforce their practice by repeating the same activity using the new words provided by the Teacher’s Guide (bug, hop, man, pig, web, sun, and rate). The materials also provide small group instruction support that guides the teacher to observe students’ ability to isolate final sounds.
In Module 8, Lesson 1, students play a game called “Step and Jump.” The teacher states the directions from the lesson script: I am going to say a word broken into sounds. I will take a step for each sound and then jump to say the word altogether. Listen: /l/ /ā/ /t/. Late!" Then students line up and repeat the process with words, such as cake, tape, hope, and wide.
The materials meet the criteria for this indicator. Materials provide systematic and direct (explicit) instruction, practice, and review to develop students’ knowledge of grade-level sound-spelling patterns, as outlined in the TEKS.
Materials provide a systematic sequence for introducing grade-level sound-spelling patterns, as outlined in the TEKS. Materials provide scripted direct (explicit) instruction for grade-level sound-spelling patterns. Materials incorporate a variety of activities and resources for students to develop, practice, and reinforce skills (through cumulative review). Materials provide a variety of activities and resources to decode and encode words that include taught sound-spelling patterns in isolation (e.g., word lists) and in decodable connected text that builds on previous instruction (e.g., within sentences or decodable texts).
Evidence includes but is not limited to:
Materials provide a systematic sequence for introducing grade-level sound-spelling patterns, as outlined in the TEKS.
In kindergarten, students learn to use letter-sound relationships to decode words, including VC, CVC, CCVC, VCe, and CVCC words. VC patterns are in Module 5, Lesson 3. VCe patterns are in Module 8, Lessons 1-2.
In Module 2, week 2, Lesson 6, students learn the long and short sounds of a. In Lesson 7, students begin blending sounds to make words. At this point in the program, students know the consonants m, s, t, b. Students blend the words at and am, and the following day, they blend the words sat and tab. In Module 3, week 1, Lesson 1, students learn the short vowel sound for i. At this point in the program, students know the additional consonants n, d, k, and p. Students blend the word sit in Lesson 2, and in Lesson 3, they blend a list of twelve words that have short a and i vowel sounds, including pin, dip, bit, cap, and mad. A new vowel is introduced approximately every two weeks.
Materials provide scripted direct (explicit) instruction for grade-level sound-spelling patterns.
In Module 7, Lesson 11, students identify and match the digraph sound /th/ with the letters t-h. The teacher tells the children they will learn about another sound spelled with two letters. The Teacher’s Guide prompts the teacher to say, “We're going to learn about two letters that make one sound. Letters t and h together make the sound /th/ as in then.” First, the teacher articulates the digraph sound. The teacher says, “Let’s say the sound /th/ two times. (/th/ /th/).” The teacher describes the mouth position and says, “When you make the sound /th/, stick your lips out and softly blow air. What sound? (/th/).” Then, the teacher displays the Letter Card th. The teacher points to the consonant spelling (two fingers together for two letters) and says the sound. After that, the teacher points to the letters again and asks the children to repeat the sound. The Teacher’s Guide prompts the teacher to say, “The two letters t-h make one sound: /th/ as in then. What sound? (/th/).”
In Module 9, Lesson 6, the teacher directions say, “Tell children they will learn about another sound spelled with two letters” when introducing the ch digraph. Per the lesson script, the teacher says, “We’re going to learn about two letters that make one sound. Letters c and h together make the sound /ch/.” When teaching the sound spelling, the teacher is directed to “display the Letter Card ch. Point to the consonant spelling (two fingers together for two letters) and say the sound. Then point to the letters again and ask children to repeat the sound. The two letters c-h make one sound: /ch/ as in chin. What sound?(/ch/).”
Materials incorporate a variety of activities and resources for students to develop, practice, and reinforce skills (through cumulative review).
Materials for kindergarten incorporate a variety of activities and resources for students to develop, practice, and reinforce skills through cumulative review. For example, in Module 7, Lesson 7, Word Work: Digraphs sh, ch, students use Picture Cards for shell and chain to “think of words that start with /sh/ and /ch/,” then the lesson directs the teacher to "have children use Pick and Point to identify the column in which the word belongs: Does shake have the beginning sound /sh/ or /ch/? Point to the column where shake belongs.” In Module 7, Lesson 8, Phonics: Digraphs sh, ch, students use Letter Cards for the Blending: Sound-by-Sound routine to “blend words with digraphs sh and ch” to read the words shop, chat, check, chop, ship, and shut.
Students apply the focus skill for the lesson or skills from previous lessons during guided and independent practice. In Module 9, Lesson 13, after an explicit lesson on digraphs, the students sort words without digraphs, such as, hop, cat, hut, and ten (taught explicitly earlier in the year) and words with digraphs, such as, shop, chat, shut, and then.
Materials provide a variety of activities and resources to decode and encode words that include taught sound-spelling patterns in isolation (e.g., word lists) and in decodable connected text that builds on previous instruction (e.g., within sentences or decodable texts).
In Module 5, Lesson 1, the Teacher’s Guide provides Dictation Sentences. These sentences are categorized in levels: Basic, Review, and Challenge. Students practice spelling high-frequency words such as but, then write the sentence “I want to play with a friend” as they check their work while looking at the teacher’s sentence. After the check, they make appropriate corrections. In Module 9, Lesson 11, the students practice writing high-frequency words, such as how and write the sentence “I know how to ride a bike.”
The lesson plans include or refer to resources, such as decodable sentences, passages, poems, or books that are specifically connected to the phonics objective. In Module 7, Lesson 3, students practice reading words with double final consonants, such as off, will, and yell in “Hop in, Jill” after studying the pattern in Lesson 1.
Students practice decoding more complex sound-spelling patterns in later modules by reading decodable readers. For example, in Module 9, Lesson 4, they read the book “The Deer” in which they read the words deer, sick, and tells. In Lesson 15, they review the books “Spot in the Sun” and “Stuck in a Lake.” These books include words like chill, quacks, rock, Chad, rope, west, and shell. Finally, in Lesson 17, they read “Like a Bat” in which they read the words cave, cape, feet, and vines.
The materials meet the criteria for this indicator. Materials provide systematic and direct instruction, practice, and review for identifying, reading, and writing regular and irregular high-frequency words.
Materials provide a systematic sequence for introducing regular and irregular high-frequency words. Materials provide scripted direct (explicit) instruction for decoding and encoding regular and irregular high-frequency words. Materials incorporate a variety of activities and resources for students to develop, practice, and reinforce skills (through cumulative review). Materials provide a variety of activities and resources for students to recognize, read, and write high-frequency words in isolation (e.g., word lists) and in connected text (e.g., within sentences or decodable texts).
Evidence includes but is not limited to:
Materials provide a systematic sequence for introducing regular and irregular high-frequency words.
In Additional Resources, there is a Foundational Skills Scope and Sequence, which consists of a chart by module and week with a column devoted to high-frequency words. This column lists the high-frequency words taught each week. Some of the high-frequency words covered in the kindergarten materials are the, a, see, I , and, can, you, help come red, and that.
In each module’s opening pages, starting with Module 1, the Developing Knowledge and Skills sections include a Words to Know section that introduces the high-frequency words in each module. The words are organized by “non-decodable,” “partially decodable,” and “decodable.” In Module 1, the words are all non-decodable: a, I, see, the. In Module 3, the decodable words are an, did, in, it, ran, and sits, while the partially decodable words are has, me, put, and with; and non-decodable words are he and she. In Module 6, the high-frequency words for the module are non-decodable: our, where; partially decodable: as, come, from, or, said, that, when; and decodable: cut, get, hot, if, must, red, stop.
In Module 1, week 3, see is introduced. In Module 3, week 4, and, can, and you are introduced. In Module 5, week 1, but, us, look, and want are introduced. In Module 8, week 1, know, out, some, and take are introduced. The TEKS specify that students read at least 25 high-frequency words. There are 120 listed on the scope and sequence.
Materials provide scripted direct (explicit) instruction for decoding and encoding regular and irregular high-frequency words.
In Module 3, Lesson 18, Foundational Skills, Words to Know, Build Automaticity: Speed Read, the teacher reviews this week’s high-frequency words, such as keep, may, why, and would by pointing to each word on the word wall, saying the word, and asking children to read and spell the word. The teacher projects a display page of high-frequency words, points from left to right, and has the children read the words chorally. The teacher then points to the words at random and chooses children to read the words aloud. The teacher keeps the pace lively and engaging.
In Module 5, Lesson 16, the learning objective is to spell and read high-frequency words. Teachers use Display and Engage: Words to Know 5.4a to introduce the words. Students repeat the words a few times chorally. "Say six. (six) Again. (six) Say six with a whisper voice. (six) Now a loud voice. (six)." Next, students spell the words. “I see the letter x at the end of the word six. Everyone, what sound? (/ks/) Ask children to spell the word chorally as you point to each letter.” Finally, students write and check the words. In the Teacher’s Guide, the Words to Know section classifies decodable (six) and partially decodable words (have, some, we). Students use Know It, Show It on pages 138–139 to practice high-frequency words.
In Module 9, Lesson 16, the teacher points to a Word to Know (high-frequency word) on the word wall and uses the Choral Reading routine to read the word. The teacher then uses the word in a context sentence. The suggested sentence is: “I like the color blue because it's the same color as my eyes." Instructions then say, "Have the children clap and chant the spelling. Then have them cheer the word.” In the Know It, Show It activity page, students complete a crossword puzzle and word search puzzle that include multiple high-frequency words such as back, look, keep, and yes.
Materials incorporate a variety of activities and resources for students to develop, practice, and cumulatively reinforce skills.
In Module 2, Lesson 1, Foundational Skills, Words to Know, See the Word, the teacher’s first step is to display a Word Card, such as by or my, say the word, and then read the context sentence and explain the word meaning. In step 2, Say the Word, the children repeat the word a few times chorally. In step 3, Spell the Word, the teacher tells the children the number of letters in the word and asks the children to spell the word chorally as the teacher points to each letter. In step 4, Write and Check the Word, the teacher hides the word and has the children write the word and check it against the Word Card to make sure it is spelled correctly. This is repeated for all of the week’s high-frequency words: by, my, and to. Students complete the Know It, Show It on pages 48-50 to practice reading and writing the week’s high-frequency words.
In Module 8, Lesson 4, students learn high-frequency words such as all, into, make, and time. After meeting in a whole group with the teacher and practicing high-frequency words, students are released to centers to place chips in Elkonin boxes to practice independently. Using the word boxes, students practice high-frequency words learned throughout the year by reading the words on the wall and practicing placing chips in the boxes to spell orally. Words such as the, here, and my are practiced as review words.
The Know It, Show It resource offers lesson-aligned independent practice activities for high-frequency words. These are PDF printables that students use to practice the assigned high-frequency words for the week. For example, the Module 8, week 3 work pages begin with a “read it, trace it, write it” sequence for the words know and out. On that same page, students color the bubble-letter words and circle the words in a mixed list of words.
Materials provide a variety of activities for students to recognize, read, and write high-frequency words in isolation (e.g., word lists) and in connected text (e.g., within sentences or decodable texts).
In Module 3, Lesson 19, Foundational Skills, Read Decodable Text, the teacher previews the text “Fix It” by reviewing the Words to Know, such as keep and made. Then the children individually whisper-read one page at a time before the group uses Choral Reading to reread each page.
In Module 6, Lesson 6, the teacher follows the Words to Know routine. Students say, spell, and check the words for, her, him, and us.
During See the Word, the teacher displays the Word Card that includes each word and a context sentence for each. The teacher reads the words and sentences.
During Say the Word, the teacher asks students to “repeat the words a few times chorally” using a sad voice and a happy voice.
During Spell the Word, the teacher asks students to “spell the word chorally as I point to each letter.”
During Write and Check the Word, the teacher hides the words and asks the students to “write the word and check it against the Word Card.”
Then the students practice independently with the Know It, Show It pages, where they read, trace, and spell each word.
In Module 7, Lesson 7, students learn to read and spell high-frequency words: back, let, were, what. The teacher uses Display and Engage: Words to Know 7.2b. The teacher points to the words from left to right and has the children read them chorally. The students practice reading the words in isolation to work on speed. “If a child says the incorrect word or does not know the word, say the word and have everyone repeat it.” Then the children use Write and Reveal to practice spelling each word.
In Module 8 Literacy Centers, the Word Work centers include a Roll It, Read It, Write It center in which students read and write high-frequency words with a partner. For each turn, they read the word that matches the number on the die (the, a, here) and write it in the column for the word. Children play until one word “wins” by “reaching the top” of the recording sheet columns.
Materials provide a Blending Board under the Foundational Skills Toolbox. Teachers customize a blending board activity with the words students are learning, including high-frequency words. Students move the letter “tiles” to form high-frequency words, such as here, the, and we. Teachers can create different boards for different groups according to their needs.
The materials meet the criteria for this indicator. Materials provide frequent opportunities for students to practice and develop word reading fluency, by using knowledge of grade-level phonics skills to read decodable texts with accuracy and automaticity.
Materials include embedded modeling and practice with word lists, decodable phrases/sentences, and decodable texts in the lesson. Materials provide practice activities for word reading fluency in a variety of settings (e.g., independently, in partners, in guided small groups, etc.). Materials provide a variety of grade-level decodable connected texts that are aligned to the phonics scope and sequence.
Evidence includes but is not limited to:
Materials include embedded modeling and practice with word lists, decodable phrases/sentences, and decodable texts in the lesson.
In Module 2, Lesson 8, Words to Know, Build Automaticity: Speed Read, the teacher projects Display and Engage with the week’s Words to Know. The teacher script says, “I will point to each word and you will read the word and spell the words. We will now read the words chorally or together. I will point at the words and randomly choose children to read the words.” The teacher keeps the pace lively and engaging. Words include go, am, and at.
In Module 3, Lesson 2, Foundational Skills, Phonics: Short I using the Blending: Sound-by-Sound routine, the teacher uses the Letter Cards s, i, t to model how to say the letters and sounds one at a time from left to right while scooping the index finger under the letters as the children blend the sounds. The Correct and Redirect box notes that if children struggle with the last step of blending all the sounds in the word, the teacher should guide the children to quickly say all the sounds together: “Don’t stretch out the sounds-read them quickly.” Words such as sit, bit, in, pin, pit, and sip are used.
In Module 5, Lesson 2, Foundational Skills, explicit modeling and demonstration is given to the teacher for the decodable text “Nuts, Not Rugs,” which reinforces the short u lesson previously taught and includes the Words to Know but and want from Lesson 1 in the module. The Read Decodable Text lesson for “Nuts, Not Rugs” includes a Word Work section. The teacher is instructed to “ask children to turn to page 11 to complete the Blend and Read activity. Review short u sound. Then use Choral Reading to blend and read the words.” Next, students complete the Word Hunt activity with the teacher instructing students to “put a thumb up when you and your partner find the word big.”
In kindergarten, the teacher focuses on the Blending: Sound-by-Sound instructional routine to explicitly teach small groups or the whole class to blend words with a target spelling or syllable pattern and provide opportunities to practice blending words with target sound-spellings. The routine is consistent throughout the materials, and the teacher is directed to display Letter Cards and "model precise and consistent hand motions" when teaching students to blend words. In Module 5, Lesson 7, students use the routine to blend words with consonants v and y. The teacher is directed to “say the first letter and sound.” Display Letter Card y and point to it. What is the letter? (y) What sound? (/y/).” This process is completed for each letter/sound until the entire word is displayed, then the teacher models and students practice how to blend: “Point to the left of the word. Scoop your index finger under the letters as children blend the sounds. (/yyyaaak/) Point to the left of the word. Quickly sweep your finger under the word and ask children to read it. What word? (yak). Connect the word to its meaning by giving a context sentence, My favorite animal is a yak.”
Teachers often use the Echo Reading routine to model fluency. The routine says:
“Listen as I read aloud one sentence or phrase at a time. I will point to the words as I read, modeling fluent reading.”
“Let’s pretend we’re in a cave and you all are my echo. So, when I pause, everyone repeats what I read at the same time. I think we were missing some voices that time. Let’s try again.”
Materials provide practice activities for word reading fluency in a variety of settings (e.g., independently, in partners, in guided small groups, etc.).
In Module 6, Lesson 14, students read connected text with accuracy. The teacher uses the decodable text “Ken and Mel”: “Read aloud page 44 to introduce the story. Have partners THINK-PAIR-SHARE to make predictions: ‘How do you think Ken's sister can help him with his sand castle?’” The teacher guides the children to individually whisper-read one page at a time. Next, the teacher guides the group to use Choral Reading as they reread one page at a time. The teacher asks text-based questions and has the children Turn and Talk to answer using the response frames. The students use the Partner Reading routine to reread the story page by page two times.
In kindergarten, teachers focus on the Partner Reading instructional routine to provide a context for students to practice targeted decoding skills and develop fluency, including accuracy, self-correction, reading rate, and prosody. The routine is consistent throughout the materials as students practice a targeted decoding element with a partner using either the Start Right reader or Mybook.
Step 1–Partner up. “Partner 1’s are closest to the calendar. Partner 2’s are closest to the clock. Partner 1’s, hold up one finger. Partner 2’s, hold up two fingers.”
Step 2–Take turns reading. “Partner 1 reads first. Partner 2 listens and follows along. Read one page. Then switch so that the other partner reads the next page.”
Step 3–Read the text again. “This time, Partner 2 reads first.” Teachers are directed to “use a child in your class to model the routine and demonstrate what you expect partners to do. In Module 7, Lesson 15, students practice reading words with initial digraphs -ch and -wh, such as that, this, and chop with their partner in"Big Mess."
In Module 9, Lesson 2, Read Decodable Text, students read the Start Right Reader titled “Val and Pop.” The teacher asks students to “whisper-read one page at a time.” Then the group uses Choral Reading to reread each page. Next, students use the Partner Reading routine to reread the story page by page. On the final page of the reader, the children choral read to blend and read the words such as den, hops, and spot. Finally, partners complete a Word Hunt activity to find the word then in a list of three words.
Materials provide a variety of grade-level decodable texts that are aligned to the phonics scope and sequence.
The materials include the Start Right decodables that emphasize a specific sound or pattern which has specifically been taught. For example, in Module 2, Lesson 8, students learn the y and v consonant sounds. The Start Right reader for this lesson is “Yams.” Students read the words yam, yak, van, Vic, and Val in this story.
In Module 2, Lesson 18, Word Work, in the predecodable book “See the Cat Nap” on the last page of the book is a speed reading activity in which children use Echo Reading to review Words to Know see, the, and and. The script says, “Have the children read the words quickly.” The high- frequency words being reviewed match the week’s words noted in the scope and sequence.
In Module 3, Lesson 17, Word Work, students use the predecodable book “Nat and Mac” for a speed reading activity in which children use Echo Reading to review Words to Know (see, you can, it, did, can, and in). The script says, “Have the children read the words quickly.” The high- frequency words being reviewed match the week’s words noted in the scope and sequence.
In Module 8, Lesson 18, the phonics lesson is on soft c and g sounds. Students read a Start Right reader titled “Rice is Nice.” In this book, students read the words rice, spice, huge, and stage. Other words with c and g are included that do not have soft sounds, such as big, rigs, cut, and can.
The materials include iRead decodable readers such as No Fun For Gus. These are black and white printable readers. In this text, students practice reading words like bun and fun. Another reader is “Fish Shop,” which has words such as dish and fish for students to read.
The materials meet the criteria for this indicator. Materials include developmentally appropriate diagnostic tools (e.g., formative and summative) and guidance for teachers to measure and monitor student progress.
Materials include a variety of diagnostic tools that are developmentally appropriate. Materials provide clear, consistent directions for accurate administration of diagnostic tools. Materials include data- management tools for tracking individual and whole-class student progress.
Evidence includes but is not limited to:
Materials include a variety of diagnostic tools that are developmentally appropriate.
The materials include an Interactive Early Literacy Assessment online during the beginning, middle, and end of the school year to gain an understanding of students’ strengths and weaknesses with foundational skills.
In the BOY assessment, students are given prompts, such as:
“Choose the lowercase letter n.”
“Choose the letter that can stand for the sound you hear; /m/.”
“Choose the picture that has the same beginning sound as the word you hear; bear, rock, boat, car.”
In the EOY assessment, students are given prompts, such as:
“In this task, you will hear a word. Choose the word you hear: bear.”
“In this task, you will hear a made-up word. Choose the word you hear: hune.”
“In this task, you will change the sound at the beginning of the word. Then choose the picture that shows the new word.” Then select the correct answer on the screen.
Then select the correct answer on the screen.
The Benchmark Assessment Kit is used to determine children’s guided reading levels and make instructional decisions. The kit includes a paired fiction and nonfiction benchmark leveled reader for guided reading levels A–N. Including this range of levels allows the teacher to assess accelerated learners who are reading beyond grade-level expectations.
Screening Assessments are assessments early in the school year to obtain preliminary information about children’s performance, screen all children for intervention, and determine flexible groups for foundational skills instruction. This assessment includes letter identification and phoneme segmentation.
Diagnostic Assessments are used as needed to follow up with children who score below expectation on screening assessments, obtain information to inform skills-based groups, and targeted instruction. This assessment includes the areas of print concepts, letter-sound correspondence, and phonological awareness. It begins with Print Concept inventory, where students identify parts of a book and distinguish letters, shapes, words, and sentences. Additionally, students identify letter-sound correspondence. The Phonological Awareness Inventory assesses words in a sentence, syllables, rhyming words, onset and rime, and isolating sounds.
Materials provide clear, consistent directions for accurate administration of diagnostic tools.
Administering and Scoring the Assessments provides general guidelines, as well as specifications for administering Diagnostic Assessments. General guidelines that are stated in the guide include finding a quiet place to test, being familiar with the test directions and items, and administering a timed section. General directions explicitly state that the teacher should duplicate a copy of the Recording Form, explain to the student that the teacher will make notes during the assessment, and not provide any help with test items. During the letter-sound correspondence assessment, the guide instructs the teacher to point to individual letters, and the student names the letter. The teacher asks, “What letter is this?” The guide instructs the teacher to wait five seconds and then point to the next letter if the student does not know the word. As additional notes for the teacher, the guide provides the tip that states, “You may point to the letter, or use index cards or an index card with a ‘window’ cut in it to show one letter at a time.”
In the Phonological Awareness Inventory section, the Administering and Scoring the Assessment guide states the following procedures:
Directions - The teacher will follow the Task, Model, and Sample script on each form.
Recording - On Administering and Recording Form page 6, indicate correct responses with ✓. If a student gives an incorrect sound, record the sound the student gave. If a student tells you the name of the letter, remind him or her that you want to know the sound. Write 0 if the student does not respond.
Discontinue - Discontinue testing if a student is unable to identify any of the first three word sounds or if the student becomes frustrated.
Scoring - Score one point for each correct response. There is only one correct response for each item, and the student must give all three or four phonemes.
The Benchmark Evaluation Guide provides teacher-scripted guidance by providing an overview of the selection, assessing oral reading by having the child read aloud while you mark errors, prompting the child to retell the selection, reading aloud comprehension questions and marking responses, and using results to determine the child’s guided reading level.
The Diagnostic Assessment provides teacher-scripted directions. For example, in the Phonological Awareness Inventory in the area of blending syllables, the script says:
“Task: The child will listen to syllables and blend them together to say the word.”
“Model: Say: I am going to say some word parts. Then I want you to put them together to make a word. I will do the first one. Listen to these word parts: cray–on. When I put the parts cray–on together, they make the word crayon.”
“Sample: Then say: Now you try one. Listen to these word parts: fast–er. What word do you make when you put fast–er together? Pause and wait for the child to respond. (faster) You’re correct. The word parts fast–er make the word faster.”
Materials include data-management tools for tracking individual and whole-class student progress.
The materials meet the criteria for this indicator. Materials include integrated progress monitoring tools, with specific guidance on frequency of use.
Materials include tools that systematically and accurately measure students’ acquisition of grade-level skills. Materials include specific guidance on determining frequency of progress monitoring based on students’ strengths and needs.
Evidence includes but is not limited to:
Materials include progress monitoring tools that systematically and accurately measure student’s acquisition of grade-level skills.
Progress monitoring in kindergarten is in the areas of: phonemic awareness, letter identification, letter-sound correspondence, high-frequency words, decodable reading, and sentence reading. Student assessment pages are provided for needed areas of visual information.
Summary Recording Forms Document: “Use this form to gather the scores from each assessment type and from the subtests of the assessments and to compare the student’s progress with curriculum-based goals. You can also use this form to identify student trends in the classroom and to modify instruction.” The Summary Recording Form keeps a record of all progress monitoring available within the grade-level program. There are 17 progress monitoring assessments in the kindergarten year.
In the Test Overview Document, the progress monitoring assessments provide biweekly checks on students’ progress. These oral reading tests are administered individually and assess students’ growth in pre-reading/reading skills throughout the school year. In kindergarten, these assessments provide checks on students’ beginning reading skills as they progress from letter sounds to decoding words and reading high-frequency words and sentences. For example, in Form 1 in Sessions 1–120 Progress-Monitoring Assessment for Phonemic Awareness: Segment Phonemes, the teacher says the word sat, and the student tells the teacher the sounds they hear for sat, /s/ /a/ /t/, and continues with the words sun and pan with the goal of being able to give all three sounds for all three words. For letter-sound correspondence, the teacher says the words cap, sat, and tap, and the student tells the teacher “which letter stands for the sound at the beginning” of each word with the goal of identifying the correct letter for the beginning sound of all three words. In High-Frequency Words, the teacher tells the students that he or she has earned those words, and then points to the words and has the student read them. Some example words found under the High-Frequency Words section are will, here, your, who, go, they, soon, and be. In Decodable Words, the student identifies each word by sounding out and blending the word, and in Sentence Reading, the student looks at the sentence and reads the words. Progress Monitoring Assessments contain 415 forms that may be used according to the progress of each student.
In the Guiding Principle and Strategies document, formative assessments determine children’s mastery of skills and plan for review, reteaching, or differentiation.
The weekly and module assessments measure children’s understanding of major comprehension and foundational skills at the end of each week and module. Each assessment has two sections. The Foundational Skills section assesses alphabet knowledge (Modules 1–2), phonics skills, decoding (Modules 2–9), and high-frequency words.
Letter Identification Tests are available and “are individually-administered tests that assess a student’s facility at naming uppercase and lowercase letters.” Phoneme Segmentation tests are also available and are “an individually administered oral test designed to assess a student’s ability to identify the individual sounds in a spoken word.”
Materials include specific guidance on determining frequency of progress monitoring based on students’ strengths and needs.
In the Intervention Assessments document, it states, “The Progress Monitoring Assessments provide biweekly checks on students’ progress. These oral reading tests are administered individually and assess students’ growth or problems in pre-reading/reading skills throughout the school year.” The progress monitoring assessments are given every two weeks to children who are receiving an intervention to help determine when they are ready to exit intervention.
In the Assessment and Differentiation document, it states, “Progress Monitoring Assessments: Administer these three- to five-minute oral assessments to individuals approximately every two weeks to: measure growth in pre-reading skills, identify challenging areas for reteaching, review, and extra practice, provide checks on children’s beginning reading skills, monitor progress of children who are receiving intervention, and to help determine when children are ready to exit intervention.” According to the Teacher’s Guide, the test should take three to five minutes. The Teacher’s Guide instructs the teacher to analyze student errors and self-corrections in each section to identify problem areas and a starting point for reteaching, review, and extra practice. The materials explicitly recommend the following:
For decoding errors, provide additional word-blending activities using word lists that feature target phonics skills. The goal here is for the student to be able to read approximately one word per second.
In the Guiding Principles and Strategies document, it states there are weekly and end-of-module assessments. Weekly assessments are administered each week, and module assessments are administered at the end of each module.
The materials meet the criteria for this indicator. Materials include guidance for teachers to analyze and respond to data from diagnostic tools.
Materials support teachers’ analysis of diagnostic data to inform responses to individual students’ strengths and needs. Diagnostic tools provide teachers with guidance on how to plan and differentiate instruction based on student data. Materials include a variety of resources that align to data, allowing teachers to plan different activities in response to student data.
Evidence includes but is not limited to:
Materials support teachers’ analysis of diagnostic data to inform response to individual students’ strengths and needs.
The Administering and Scoring document has a section on adjusting instruction depending on the outcome of the assessment. In the Administering and Scoring the Assessments for kindergarten section, teachers are instructed to “administer each assessment orally to individual students approximately every two weeks.” If a student has difficulty showing mastery, Adjusting Instruction in Administering and Scoring the Assessments informs the teacher to “analyze a student’s errors and self-corrections in each section to identify problem areas and a starting point for reteaching, review, and extra practice.
For phonics errors, provide additional word-blending activities using word lists that feature target phonics skills.
For errors in recognizing high-frequency words, supply brief cumulative lists (approximately ten words) of high-frequency words to read and reread with increasing speed and accuracy.”
The Summary Recording Forms correspond to the progress monitoring assessments. The Summary Recording Forms document states: “A Summary Recording Form is provided for each grade level. Use this form to gather the scores from each assessment type and from the subtests of the assessments and to compare the student’s progress with curriculum-based goals. You can also use this form to identify student trends in the classroom and to modify instruction.” Teachers use this Summary Recording Form in kindergarten to document data on Progress Summary Assessments, Forms 1-17. On this form, teachers record the number of correct responses for each category out of the total number of responses. Then teachers check the appropriate “student action” of either “move ahead” or “needs reteaching” for the specific progress monitoring assessment.
When administering each section, the Teacher’s Guide provides very explicit instructions, such as, “If a student misses four items in a row, discontinue testing of that particular task and move on to the next task. Stop testing any time a student displays frustration with or is unable to perform a task.” The materials also suggest that the tasks should be administered in sequential order.
The materials include a data analysis section that supports the teacher’s analysis of assessment data. For example, the Module Assessments Guide provides suggested steps for teachers to follow or questions to ask themselves when analyzing student data, for example:
Duplicate the Answer Key.
Circle the question numbers answered incorrectly for each assessment and compare the corresponding skills indicated.
Look for patterns among the errors to help you determine which skills need reteaching and more practice.
Materials tools provide teachers with guidance on how to plan and differentiate instruction based on student data.
The materials include a Recommendations for Data-Driven Instruction which "provide(s) an overview and detailed recommendations for data-driven intervention.” For instance, one of the recommendations for students who need more practice in letter identification is to administer the corresponding lessons in Foundational Skills and Word Study Studio on identifying what words, sentences, and books are; distinguishing between letters and numbers; and recognizing and writing letters of the alphabet.
The Recommendations for Data-Driven Instruction document provides instructional suggestions and additional assessments if the student scores below a specified score in the Screening Assessment. For example, the Phoneme Segmentation materials state, “If Below Goal on Screening Assessment for Phoneme Segmentation then:
IDENTIFY STUDENT NEEDS–Administer Diagnostic Assessment: Phonological Awareness Inventory.
TEACH TO THE NEED–Administer the corresponding lessons in Foundational Skills and Word Study Studio, choosing from Sessions 32–55.
SCAFFOLD THE CORE–Provide scaffolded support, which may include small-group work and/or strategic intervention, to help students access core instruction.
MONITOR PROGRESS with Progress-Monitoring Assessments and core assessments.”
The materials include teacher guidance for differentiating instruction based on the students’ demonstrated understanding of specific phonological awareness or phonics skills. For example, the Adjusting Instruction section of the materials in the Assessment Scoring and Administration Guide directs the teacher to “analyze a student’s errors and self-corrections in each section to identify problem areas and a starting point for reteaching, review, and extra practice.”
Materials include a variety of resources that align to data, allowing teachers to plan different activities in response to student data.
The materials suggest implementing iRead to provide children with personalized and individually paced intervention for learning foundational skills. As a digital, foundational reading program, iRead provides daily practice, as well as acceleration for children who are ready and early intervention for those at risk. iRead is a supplemental program to use in tandem with the K–2 Into Reading. “It is designated technology time for personalized instruction and practice with: alphabet and phonological awareness, decoding and spelling, high-frequency words, word analysis, and reading success eBooks.
For phonics errors, the materials guide the teacher to “provide additional word-blending activities using word lists that feature target phonics skills.” For errors in recognizing high-frequency words, the materials guide the teacher to “supply brief cumulative lists (approximately ten words) of high-frequency words to read and reread with increasing speed and accuracy."
Foundational Skills and Word Study Studio is a resource to help teachers plan activities based on student needs. It is broken into sessions, and each session follows this pattern: teach/model, guided practice/apply. Session 1 is titled Print Concepts: What Is a Word? Starting with Session 5, teachers can take students through lessons with every letter of the alphabet starting with Letter Knowledge: Letter Name Bb.
Leveled readers are included for every grade level based on reading levels. Teachers use the Benchmark Passages/Books and Running Records (Levels aa-J) to place students in leveled readers. The teacher first selects a passage or book that best approximates a student's reading level. Then they use the running records that accompany each passage or book to score a student's reading behavior.
The materials meet the criteria for this indicator. Materials include guidance, scaffolds, supports, and extensions that maximize student learning potential.
Materials provide targeted instruction and activities to scaffold learning for students who have not yet mastered grade-level foundational phonics skills. Materials provide targeted instruction and activities to accelerate learning for students who have achieved grade-level mastery of foundational phonics skills and enrichment for all learners. Materials provide enrichment activities for all levels of learners.
Evidence includes but is not limited to:
Materials provide targeted instruction and activities to scaffold learning for students who have not yet mastered grade-level foundational phonics skills.
The kindergarten materials provide targeted instruction and activities to scaffold learning for students who have not yet mastered grade-level foundational phonics skills. The Teacher’s Guide provides an Options for Differentiation section in each lesson. This section provides additional guidance on guided reading groups. Teacher guidance suggests a “just-right” book to address the skill taught each day. Additionally, teachers have access to Take and Teach lessons that are used to deliver instruction based on the need. The Teacher’s Guide also offers a Scaffold and Extend section, which suggests instructional approaches for the teacher to use. Know It, Show It pages may also be used for additional practice to reinforce skills.
The Teacher's Guide includes Correct and Redirect suggestions for students who may need more practice. For example, in Module 5, Lesson 1, a Correct and Redirect is given for Phonological Awareness, which states, "If children need support for blending sounds, practice blending two-phoneme words before trying three phonemes again. Suggested two-phoneme words: as, in, she, tea, up.”
Additionally, Targeted Skill Practice(s) are suggested for additional practice for students who are struggling with specific skills. In Module 5, Phonological Awareness, it states, “IF...children struggle to blend phonemes into words, THEN...support with the Targeted Skill Practice. For this specific Targeted Skill Practice, students blend spoken phonemes to form one-syllable words using Picture Cards and Elkonin boxes. Students look at a Picture Card such as bug and move tokens into boxes as they say each sound in the word." The teacher “guide(s) children to put the sounds together and say the word chorally” and then “repeat(s) with several more familiar words (e.g., duck, hug, nut, run).”
The materials also include Foundational Skills and Word Study Studio–guided lessons to assist students with specific skills, such as Session 34 Phonological Awareness: Segment Syllables where students practice “segment(ing) syllables in spoken words (and) pronounc(ing) and segment(ing) syllables.”
Materials provide targeted instruction and activities to accelerate learning for students who have achieved grade-level mastery of foundational phonics skills.
The Guiding Principles and Strategies document gives a definition of accelerated learners and explains ways to provide accelerated learning. “Simply put, accelerated learners are children whose skills are above grade level. They haven’t necessarily been identified as “gifted,” but they’re clearly ready for accelerated learning experiences, such as more challenging books, opportunities to read to their peers, and leadership roles in group projects.” It goes on to say, “The daily options for differentiation in Into Reading provide support for above-level learners who are ready to learn more: Targeted Skill Practice to Extend, Little Books, iRead (adaptive software), Inquiry and Research Projects along with flexible grouping to allow children who have mastered skills to engage in different options. As a digital-foundation reading program, iRead provides daily practice and acceleration for children who are ready.
The materials give suggestions for extending learning. In Module 4, Lesson 4, students extend learning by reading and building words. The lesson script reads as follows, “EXTEND: Find Words. Display all of the Letter Cards in random order. Ask each child to use the letters to write three words on a piece of paper without showing the other children. Have children read aloud their words and ask the group to use “thumbs up or down” to indicate if the words are correct.
Additionally, the Teacher’s Guide provides a Teacher Tip section. This section provides suggestions for teachers on how to challenge students who have mastered the skill. There is also an Options for Differentiation section in the teacher materials. In this section, teachers may extend and build deeper connections. For example, display the Letter Cards face down. Choose a child to pick a card and hold it up. Have children say the letter and the sound and blend it with other index cards to make as many word combinations as possible.
Materials provide enrichment activities for all levels of learners.
Materials provide enrichment activities for all levels of learners in foundational phonics skills. For example, the teacher manual has suggestions for Literacy Centers (e.g., word sorts, word building, read-alouds, etc.) in which students apply their phonics knowledge independently.
iRead Experience (digital learning) is a supplemental program for providing enrichment activities for all learners. The first time children log on, they will be taken to the iRead Screener. Once children have completed the screener, they are placed at the appropriate place in the Instructional Software Scope and Sequence based on their screener results. As children progress through the Instructional Software series and topics, they will be brought back to where they left off after their last session.
Materials for kindergarten provide enrichment activities for all levels of learners. Within the modules, students are encouraged to work in small groups or pairs to complete various activities and discuss their learning. The Teacher Tip for Module 7, Lesson 13, suggests that teachers “have children suggest other items that could be found in an aquarium. Have the group chorally segment these one-syllable words into phonemes.”
The materials meet the criteria for this indicator. Materials include a variety of instructional methods that appeal to a variety of learning interests and needs.
Materials include a variety of developmentally appropriate instructional approaches to engage students in mastery of the content. Materials support a variety of instructional settings (e.g., whole group, small group, one-on-one).
Evidence includes but is not limited to:
Materials include a variety of developmentally appropriate instructional approaches to engage students in mastery of the content.
The materials for kindergarten include a variety of developmentally appropriate instructional approaches to engage students in mastery of the content. Lessons contain Letter, Picture, and Word Cards, so students not only hear the letter, sound, or word but also see a visual of the letter, picture, or word. Lessons also include movement. For example, in Module 3, Lesson 7, Phonological Awareness, Identify Initial Sounds: Popcorn Sounds, students use Picture Cards, Letter Cards, and fun movements to emphasize beginning sounds in words. The instructional materials state for the teacher to “display each Picture Card, say the word, and have children repeat it chorally.” The teacher is then to hand a Picture Card to each child and say, “When I call out a word with the same first sound as your card, pop up and say your word. Listen: rug.” The teacher is then to “have children share matching words one at a time, with the group repeating each word chorally.” Available Picture Cards to match rug include rope and rock. The materials provide additional words and matching Picture Cards, such as bed with box and bus and fox with fish and five. In the Phonics lesson for the same lesson, students use Letter Cards to build and blend CVC words that begin with r and f, such as fan, fin, fit, rip, rib, and rat. The teacher then “connects the word to its meaning by giving a context sentence,” such as “I found a rip in my shirt.”
Teachers and students access instructional videos which are provided to accompany the letter/sound being learned throughout Alphafriend Videos, such as Mika Moth for the letter Mm.
The materials provide iRead, which is a software that children can use during Literacy Centers or designated technology time for personalized instruction and practice with:
Alphabet and phonological awareness
Decoding and spelling
High-frequency words
Word analysis
Reading success eBooks
Materials support a variety of instructional settings (e.g., whole group, small group, one-on-one).
The phonics part of each lesson takes place whole-group as the teacher works through the modeling (I Do) and guided practice (We Do). For example, in the I Do sections, the teacher shares the Sound/Letter/Picture Card for the letter being learned in that lesson, and the students echo what the teacher says and models how to form the letter saying the strokes as they form the letter. In the We Do sections, the students review the sound, picture, and letter of the day and practice forming the letter with the teacher guiding them through the correct answers and strokes of the letter.
Phonics lessons end with independent practice opportunities that are often suggested for partners. For example, in Module 3, Lesson 19, Foundational Skills, Phonics, Inflection -s lesson, after the whole group lesson on using Letter Cards to build and blend sounds to read words with inflection, there is an additional small group suggestion at the bottom of the page. After observing the students in the lesson, there is an IF...THEN. “If students have trouble choosing the correct letters to build the word, then support through a suggested Targeted Skill Practice. If students show they are able to build words, then extend with a different Targeted Skill Practice.”
There are also Teacher Tips, which provide guidance for additional activities to use in a variety of instructional settings. For example, in Module 2, Lesson 6, the Teacher Tip states, “Partner up! Tell children they will blend syllables with a partner to make a secret word. Whisper one syllable of a two-syllable word to each partner. Have children repeat their syllables until they blend them to find their secret word.”
The materials provide options for independent and collaborative work, such as literacy centers, myBook, and student-choice library books. For example, the Literacy Centers:
Reading Corner, where students may engage in activities that target the lesson objective. These activities may include singing a song, writing a book review, or pretending to be a teacher.
Word Work, where students may play games, such as “Go Fish” using VCe words, use syllable squares, or play a memory game to review multiple-meaning words.
Writing Center, where students may practice handwriting or have time to write about a specific topic.
Creativity Corner, where students may engage in activities, such as creating a mural or being part of a dramatic play.
Digital Station, where students read along with eBooks.
The materials meet the criteria for the indicator. Materials include support for English learners to meet grade-level learning expectations.
Materials include linguistic accommodations (communicated, sequenced, and scaffolded) commensurate with various levels of English language proficiency as defined by the English Language Proficiency Standards (ELPS). Materials encourage strategic use of students’ first language as a means to linguistic, affective, cognitive, and academic development in English.
Evidence includes but is not limited to:
Materials include linguistic accommodations (communicated, sequenced, and scaffolded) commensurate with various levels of English language proficiency as defined by the English Language Proficiency Standards (ELPS).
The kindergarten materials include linguistic accommodations (communicated, sequenced, and scaffolded) commensurate with various levels of English language proficiency as defined by the ELPS. In Module 4, Lesson 8, the Phonics: Short 0 lesson includes a table titled English Learner Support: Word Meaning, which provides beginning, intermediate, and advanced/advanced high support. For beginning English Language Supports, the chart states for the teacher to “provide meanings for words that children don’t know, and have children chorally repeat the word. For example: To sob is to cry. (sob).” The guidance for intermediate English Language Support states, “use unfamiliar words in a cloze sentence and have children chorally say the word. For example: It is hard to see through ___. (fog)” The guidance for advanced/advanced high English Language Support shares “have partners make up sentences using at least two blends.”
English Language Learner Support can be found in the modules, such as this pronunciation example from Module 4, Lesson 9: “BEGINNING–Say the words one at a time, emphasizing the – s ending. Have children repeat the words chorally. INTERMEDIATE–Use each word in a cloze sentence and have children chorally say the word. For example: At the pet store, I saw _____. (dogs) Ask children if the inflection makes the sound /s/ or /z/.” ADVANCED–Have partners turn and talk and use the word in a sentence they make up.”
In Module 6, Lesson 4, guidance is given to support word meaning during an alliteration lesson:
Beginning: "Spread all of the Picture Cards face up. Listen: cat. Have children ‘pick and point’ to identify the card. Have them repeat the word. What word? (cat).”
Intermediate: “Spread all of the Picture Cards face up. Listen: key. Use Choral Response to have children name a word that starts with the same word. What word? (cat)."
Advanced/Advanced High: “Have partners 'turn and talk' to use each word in a sentence."
Materials encourage strategic use of students’ first language as a means to linguistic, affective, cognitive, and academic development in English.
Materials for kindergarten encourage strategic use of students’ first language as a means to linguistic, affective, cognitive, and academic development in English. For example, in Module 1, Lesson 18, Blend Syllables into Words: Blend Compound Words, the ENGLISH LEARNER SUPPORT: Articulation informs the teacher: “In Vietnamese, the s is pronounced like /sh/ as in show. Guide children to articulate /s/ properly. Put the front part of your tongue near the back of your top teeth. Blow air out and say /s/. What sound? (/s/) Use what students know about /sh/ to pronounce /s/.”
The materials have a document titled Language Differences for the teacher to help use the knowledge of the primary language to understand possible challenges and to support transfer of knowledge to English. The languages covered are Spanish, Vietnamese, Cantonese, Filipino, Hmong, and Korean. There is a page with columns devoted to the writing system, differences, and transfer of each of the languages when thinking of the student learning English. There are pages for initial consonants, medial consonants, final consonants, and vowels comparing that letter/sound versus the native language. An example is using the /f/ sound in fan in Spanish, there is little difficulty for English /f/, in Vietnamese /f/ makes the /b/ sound like ban. In Cantonese or Mandarin, there is little difficulty, and in Filipino, Hmong, and Korean, the /f/ sound in fan makes the /p/ sound in pan. Understanding these differences in sounds will help teachers in transferring linguistic skills. Teachers use this resource to become familiar with how each language aligns with or differs from English in the following areas:
Alphabet (Writing System)
Phonological Features (Consonant and Vowel Sounds)
Grammatical Features (Parts of Speech, Verb Tenses, Sentence Structure, and Syntax)
Additionally, on the dashboard under Teacher Corner, there are teacher videos on how to differentiate to support English language learners. The videos give step-by-step directions from a classroom teacher on best practices when working with English language learners, such as using the first language to build on the second language using cognates.
The Guiding Principles and Strategies handbook can be used across all grade levels. For example, the handbook includes information and guidance on addressing language differences to support teachers. In one part of the handbook, it says, “Understanding similarities and differences between a child’s first language and English can help you tailor your instruction to meet children’s individual needs.” The Helpful Similarities listed include: “Learning cognates is one way to draw on a shared element to help strengthen children’s vocabulary. Cognates are words that are written and pronounced similarly between languages, like attention in English and atencíon in Spanish. Shared letter-sound correspondences (e.g., the letter d makes the sound /d/ in both Spanish and English) are another example of a shared element that can help children as they learn to read and write.”
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