Savvas Essentials: Foundational Reading Grade K

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

The materials partially meet the criteria for this indicator. Materials include some systematic, year-long plans for phonics instruction.

Materials include a scope and sequence that outlines some essential knowledge and skills that are taught throughout the year. Materials demonstrate some vertical alignment but do not show a clear progression of skill development from year to year. Lessons follow a systematic progression from simple to complex concepts.

Evidence includes but is not limited to:

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

• The materials include a scope and sequence that outlines the essential knowledge and skills that are taught throughout the year. This is found in the Planning and Pacing Guide for each grade level. This document shows that each module is taught for five weeks, and each lesson is one week long. The guide gives the teacher exactly what to teach each day. The guide does not include TEKS, a concise skill description, needed student materials, or the location of teacher materials. The materials suggest the Planning and Pacing Guide is to be used in concert with the Teacher's Guide, as that is where teachers find a concise skills description (the “Learning Target”) within each lesson, along with needed student materials and the location of teacher materials. The scope and sequence does not clearly identify which essential knowledge and skills are taught, practiced, and reviewed.

• The materials include another resource titled “Scope and Sequence,” which is a dot matrix table that allows for a comparison of what skill is taught by grade level and strand, reading like a vertical alignment document.

• In the table of contents, the materials also present an overview of the skills covered. Teachers can view content covered by strand, such as phonics and phonemic awareness. The contents by strand are listed in sequential order and give teachers the page numbers for specific skills so they can access those lessons. For example, if a teacher would like to find the lesson that teaches students about the consonant sound /r/, they can look at the Contents by Strand: Phonics and see where the lesson is found and the review of that sound in the Teacher’s Guide.

• Beginning in Module 3, each unit has a Module at a Glance, with a column dedicated to phonological awareness and a separate column dedicated to phonics. Each column gives a description of what is being taught and the page numbers that the concept is found on. For example, the Module at a Glance for phonological awareness in Module 3 states that blending syllables is taught in Lesson 1, followed by segmenting syllables in words and deleting syllables in words in Lessons 2 and 3. It also states that for phonics, the consonants Mm /m/ and Tt /t/ are addressed in Lessons 1 and 2. However, the TEKS are not listed next to the skills.

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

• The materials outline the progression of skill development from kindergarten through grade 2. They include a resource titled Scope and Sequence, which reads like a vertical alignment document in the form of a dot matrix table which allows for a comparison of what skill is taught by grade level and strand. This allows teachers to have a visual to see which skills are introduced, when they are reviewed, and if they are taught in other grade levels for vertical alignment purposes. For example, under the phonological awareness strand, the table shows “recognizing and producing rhyming words” is taught at all three grade levels, but “segmenting and blending onset and rime in one syllable words” is only taught in kindergarten and grade 1.

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

• The materials include lessons with objectives that follow a systematic progression from simple to complex concepts, building the prerequisite skills students need to read more complex words throughout the year. For example, lesson objectives begin with an emphasis on phonemic awareness, letter names, and letter sounds (starting with consonant sounds and short vowel sounds). The transition to decoding and encoding VC, CVC, CCVC, and CVCC words as new phoneme-grapheme correspondences is also introduced. In Modules 3–8, letters and sounds are introduced. Beginning in Modules 9 and 10, initial and final blends are taught along with long vowel sounds and the VCe words.

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

The materials partially meet the criteria for this indicator. Materials provide some 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 some 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.

• The materials include guidance for a version of the gradual release of responsibility model. The materials split up phonics Minilessons into Teach (Instruction with modeling or I Do), Guide Practice (We do), and More (You do) sections. The Teach section contains scripts for the teacher that are basic, repetitive, and don’t include specific phrasing or emphasis on important points. For example, in Module 5, Lesson 23, the teacher begins by displaying a sound-spelling card (dime) and says, “This is a picture of a dime. The letter d spells the consonant sound /d/. Say the sound with me: /d/.” The materials include a picture of what this sound-spelling card looks like. Then, the teacher displays a second sound-spelling card (octopus) and says, “This is a picture of an octopus. The letter o spells the vowel sound /o/. Say the sound with me: /ooo/.” Next, the teacher models blending and reading a word that contains these sounds. They write the word dot on the board. The teacher underlines the letters d and o and says, “What sounds do the letters d and o spell?” Then the teacher says, “I can blend sounds to read a word. We already know t spells sound /t/.” The materials direct the teacher to slide their finger under the sound- spellings as they say “/d/ /o/ /t/, dot.” The materials provide a visual example of this. The Guide Practice section contains scripts for the teacher to use to give students instructions. The teacher says, “Now you are going to blend sounds to read words.” The teacher writes the word dip on the board. The teacher slides their finger under the sound-spellings as children blend the sounds to read the words. This is repeated with pod and nod. The last portion of the lesson is a dictation activity. The materials say to “have children use their knowledge of sound-spellings to write each word.” The teacher says the following words slowly: dot, did, dad, sod. Though students complete this independently, it does not create an independent practice opportunity that is similar to what students saw the teacher teach and model.

• The materials include guidance for teachers on how students can practice and apply new phonics skills through independent practice. Additional practice after each Minilesson is included in the More section of the Teacher’s Guide. For example, in Module 3, Lesson 11, Partner Practice gives instructions about how to use picture cards to sort words that begin with m and those that do not begin with m. On the worktext page that corresponds to this lesson, the following directions are written at the top of the page: “Say the name of each picture. Circle the pictures with names that begin with the sound for m.” At the bottom of the page, the directions for the teacher say, “Have students say the name of each picture. Ask them to circle the picture whose names begin with the sound /m/.”

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

• The materials do not contain ample and useful annotations and suggestions within lessons. The materials do include a document called “Detailed Guidance for Delivery of Instruction” that can be found under the teacher support tab within the digital course. t. Occasionally, there are suggestions for more practice. For example, in Module 6, Lesson 28, students learn the /g/ and Minilesson sound. After introducing the sounds, the teacher writes the word get on the board and underlines the letters g and e. The teacher says, “What sounds do the letters g and e spell?” The materials then include a suggestion in the next sentence: “If needed, point to the letters g and e and have children repeat the sounds /g/ and /e/ several times.” This is within the instructional script. It is not an additional annotation or suggestion.

• The materials do not provide teachers with additional information about the content that would be helpful when presenting it to students. For example, in Module 4, Lesson 16, students are introduced to blending onset and rime. The materials do not include any teacher tips, definitions, or sidebars to inform the teacher what onset and rime are. The materials go straight into the Minilesson, which begins by directing the teacher to “demonstrate how to blend onset and rime using the word bed.” The lesson begins with the teacher saying, “Listen to the first sound in a word: /b/. Now listen to the second part of the word: -ed. I’ll say the sounds together: /b/ (pause) -ed. Does that sound like a word? Let’s blend the sounds to say a word: /b/, -ed, (faster) bed.” The only information provided about onset and rime is the scripting.

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

The materials partially meet the criteria for this indicator. Materials include some guidance that supports teacher’s delivery of instruction.

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

Evidence includes but is not limited to:

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

• The materials do not include information for teachers about common misconceptions related to phonics skills. For example, in Module 3, Lesson 14, students learn the consonant Bb /b/. When learning this letter, it is common to add a schwa sound to the end of /b/. The lesson does not address this common misconception or give the teacher guidance to correct it if it is observed. Instead, in the lesson, the teacher shows the sound-spelling card and says, “This is a picture of a butterfly. Butterfly begins with the sound /b/. The letter b spells the sound /b/. Say the sound with me: /b/.” The teacher writes the word bat, underlines the letter b, and asks, “What sound does letter b spell? I can blend sounds to read a word.” The teacher slides their finger under the sound-spellings as they say, “/b/ /a/ /t/, bat.” The teacher then says, “Now you are going to blend sounds to read words.” The teacher writes bam and tab and slides their finger under the words as students read. In this lesson, students do not learn the correct formation, practice encoding, or apply their new learning to a connected text. There is no additional guidance for the teacher.

• The materials include a “Developing Sound-Spelling Patterns” document that contains information about guiding principles related to teaching phonics skills. For example, in “Developing Sound-Spelling Patterns,” there is information for teachers on phonics generalizations and sound-spelling patterns, along with a chart including most of the phoneme representations in the English language, their various sound-spelling correspondences with example words, and the frequency of each particular spelling.

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

• The introductory materials in the Teacher’s Guide state that instruction is “systematic and explicit” with skills that “advance in difficulty and lessons build upon prerequisite skills.” They also describe their gradual release of responsibility in lessons as “teach, model, guide practice, more.” This is consistent throughout the phonics lessons; however, there are not a variety of instructional strategies for each phonics skill. The materials provide the same consistent, structured routine for each skill, a rationale for the routine, and details for teaching the strategies. When teaching letter sounds, each lesson uses the exact same script, resources, and lesson structure. The guidance is not differentiated per phonics skill and lacks detailed and specific instructional strategies for each phonics skill. Each letter sound lesson begins with a sound-spelling card displayed. For example, in Module 4, Lesson 16, students learn the sound /p/ spelled Pp. The teacher displays a sound-spelling card (pilot) and says, “This is a picture of a pilot. The letter p spells the consonant sound /p/. Say the sound with me: /p/ /p/ /p/.” When the materials begin to teach more complex phonics skills, they use the same sound-spelling card routine to introduce new phonics patterns. For example, in Module 9, Lesson 41, students are introduced to initial consonant blends. The teacher displays the sound-spelling card (train) and says, “This is a picture of a train. The word train begins with the sounds /t/ /r/. The sounds /t/ and /r/ are blended together: /t//r/. The sounds /t/ and /r/ are spelled with the letters t, r. Say the blended sounds with me: /t/ /r/.”

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

• The materials include guidance for corrective feedback in the document “Detailed Guidance for Delivery of Instruction.” Following each Minilesson within the materials, there is a small section titled Corrective Feedback. This provides limited feedback in the form of an “IF... THEN...” statement related to the skill taught in the lesson. For example, in Module 6, Lesson 28, students learn the sounds /g/ and /e/. The corrective feedback for this lesson says, “If... children have difficulty connecting the sound /g/ to the letter g, then... display the letter g and point to the letter as you say, ‘The letter g spells the sound /g/.’ Have the children write g on their paper as you repeat the sound together. Then display and read aloud words with g, emphasizing sound /g/: got, gas, gap. Repeat for the letter e with the words set, pet, and get.” The materials include guidance for the teacher about materials needed for this feedback, stating “You’ll Need: paper” for the feedback in the example above.
• Guidance for teachers provides detailed, specific instructional strategies with consistent routines for teaching each phonics skill. The corrective feedback in the materials is often the same or similar to the instructional strategies used within the lessons they follow. For example, in Module 5, Lesson 23, the lesson objective says students should demonstrate knowledge of the short vowel sounds in one- syllable words, and decode and encode close, one-syllable CVC words. The teacher shows a picture and says, “This is a dime. The letter d spells the consonant sound /d/. Say the sound with me: /d/. The teacher shows the sound-spelling card for the letter Oo and says, “This is a picture of an octopus. The letter o spells the vowel sound /o/. Say the sound with me: /oooo/.” The corrective feedback repeats the lesson, “If... children have difficulty connecting sound /d/ to d, then... display Letter Card d. Point to d. Have children echo you as you say: d spells /d/, /d/, /d/, /d/. Repeat for o.”

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

• The materials provide a document, “Detailed Guidance for Delivery of Instruction,” which includes general ideas for teachers to connect different phonics skills. This document is used

  across grade levels.

• The materials do not provide detailed guidance for connecting previously taught phonics skills to new learning, nor do they include specific references to previous learning. For example, in Module 4, Lesson 18, students learn the word families -at and -an. The materials include a script for the teacher to define word families by saying, “The words bat and sat have the same ending sounds /a/ /t/ spelled a, t, so they are both in the -at word family. A word family is a group of words that have the same pattern or group of letters with the same sounds.” In the following lesson, Module 4, Lesson 19, students learn the word families -in and -it. The materials do not connect this new word family to the previously learned word family in the prior lesson. Instead, they simply restate the definition of a word family by including the same script for the teacher to say, “The words pin and tin have the same ending sounds /i/ /n/ spelled i, n, so they are both in the -in word family. A word family is a group of words that have the same pattern or group of letters with the same sounds." Additionally, in Module 9, Lesson 41, students learn about substituting initial phonemes. In the following lesson, Module 9, Lesson 42, students are substituting phonemes in words. The lessons are related, but there is no guidance in the script that instructs the teacher to state what was learned previously and how it helps with what is being taught in this lesson. Instead, the lesson begins with, “Listen to this word: dot. The beginning sound in dot is /d/. I’m going to change the beginning sound /d/ in dot to /n/: /n/ /o/ /t/. The new word is not. Now listen as I change the beginning sound in another word: jug. I will change the beginning sound /j/ in jug to /r/: /r/ /u/ /g/. The new word is rug.”

• The materials do not provide sufficient opportunity to review previously taught phonics skills before learning new skills. Each lesson in each module introduces skills that are assessed in the fifth week of the module. The next module introduces a set of new skills. Skills previously taught are not tied into the current module, nor are they assessed at the end of the module.

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

• The materials include a document, “Detailed Guidance for Delivery of Instruction.” In “Part V: One Program, Different Pathways,” the materials explain how to utilize different parts of the lessons in the Teacher’s Guide. 
• In the Teacher’s Guide, the materials include guidance regarding pacing on a page titled, Teach Foundational Skills YOUR Way! where the materials state that they can be used in a sequential pathway, where a teacher teaches “all strands by grade level, using each lesson in order,” or that they can be used in a differentiated pathway, where a teacher can “teach or reteach one lesson based on the needs of your classroom, use your choice of More activities to provide practice for whole group, use the Minilesson for small groups, utilize whatever is needed to provide extra support for individual students, [and] use ideas from More activities in your classroom centers.” There is guidance on how to choose to use the differentiated pathway within the document “Detailed Guidance for Delivery of Instruction.” A scope and sequence is provided that indicates which standards are taught in each grade level. If the sequential pathway is selected, there is a planning and pacing guide that lists which lessons should be completed each day.
• The Teacher’s Guide also includes one page titled Lesson Pacing. A diagram depicts the suggested times for each component of their lessons: Minilesson, More, and Assess. For phonological awareness skills, the suggested times are 5 minutes for the Minilesson, 5–15 minutes for the More activities, and 5 minutes to assess. For phonics skills, the suggested times are 10 minutes for the Minilesson, 5–15 minutes for the More activities, and 5 minutes to assess. For high-frequency word lessons, the suggested times are 10 minutes for the Minilesson, 5–15 minutes for the More activities, and 5 minutes to assess. For the foldable decodable lessons, the suggested times are 5 minutes for the Minilesson, 5–15 minutes for the More activities, and no assessment is included. There are no time breakdowns for specific components within each section.

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

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

Materials do not include intentional cumulative review and practice activities throughout the span of the curriculum. Practice opportunities include some phonics skills that have been explicitly taught. Decodable texts incorporate some 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.

• The materials do not include intentional cumulative review throughout the span of the curriculum. Only two explicit review materials are included. The first is a Daily Phonological Awareness Review, which reinforces previously learned phonological awareness skills such as isolating and pronouncing sounds, blending phonemes, identifying rhymes, and more. The second is a review lesson in each module. The fifth lesson in each module goes over what has been taught in the previous four lessons. These review lessons do not include skills that were taught in other modules. For example, in Module 3, Lesson 15 is the review and assessment lesson. This lesson reviews blending syllables, segmenting syllables, deleting syllables, manipulating syllables, and the consonant sounds /m/, /t/, /s/, /b/, and short vowel sound /a/. Skills from previous modules, such as letter identification, rhyming, and alliteration, are not included in this review.
• The materials include word lists and decodable sentences for guided practice of newly learned patterns but do not review previously taught patterns. For example, in Module 6, Lesson 26, the consonant k is introduced. In Module 6, Lesson 27 introduces the consonant f. The Lesson 27 dictation words are fib, fin, fad, and if. They do not intentionally review previously learned spelling patterns. There is also no practice from module to module.

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

• The materials include practice opportunities for students to practice the skill that has been explicitly taught within the lesson that follows the activities. The materials do not include practice opportunities in other lessons that review previously learned phonics skills. Each Minilesson is followed by a More section that includes several activities to reinforce the specific skill taught in the lesson. These activities do not review previously taught skills The teacher is never directed to review words or activities from previous lessons. For example, in Module 8, Lesson 36, the consonant Yy /y/ is taught. In the student worktext, students are asked to say the name of each picture, and then they are asked to circle the pictures with names that begin with the y sound. In the phonics lesson interactive practice, students are asked to look at the pictures and to drag pictures that begin with the y sound to the provided area. In partner practice, students are given picture cards and are asked to sort them into two piles: words that begin with y and words that do not begin with y.

Decodable texts incorporate cumulative practice of taught phonics skills.

• The materials include a decodable text for every phonics skill taught in the form of a foldable decodable. While the foldable decodables increase in complexity throughout the year, each foldable decodable is specifically connected to the phonics objective of the lesson it corresponds to. There is no intentional cumulative review through the decodable texts. For example, in Module 4, Lesson 16, children learn about the sound /p/ spelled with the letter p. The corresponding foldable decodable, Tap the Map, includes words that use the letter p to spell the /p/ sound, which gives students practice with that skill. The foldable decodables do not explicitly review other previously taught skills but provide students with practice reading text with short sentences, CVC words with letters that they have learned, and learned sight words.

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

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

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

Evidence includes but is not limited to:

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

• A strategic sequence for introducing letters is used; however, sounds are not introduced with the letters. High-utility letters are introduced first, but sounds are not introduced at all during this module. Letters are introduced in the following order: Cc, Oo, Ss, Ll, Mm, Pp, Ii, Jj, Kk, Nn, Tt, Uu, Yy, Aa, Bb, Ee, Ff, Gg, Hh, Dd, Qq, Rr, Vv, Ww, Xx, Zz. A letter introduction looks like this example from Module 1, Lesson 1: The teacher displays the sound-spelling card (carrot) and says, “This is a picture of a carrot. The word carrot begins with the letter c. At the top of the card are two letters. Let’s find out what they are!” The teacher writes Cc on the board and points to the letter C. The teacher says, “This letter is uppercase, or capital, C.” The teacher points to the letter c and says, “This letter is lowercase c. These two letters look exactly alike! But one is big, and one is small.” Students practice saying letter names as the teacher points to each letter. The same routine is repeated for the letters Oo and Ss, so three letters are taught during the first lesson. Lessons that explicitly connect letters to sounds begin in Module 3.

• The materials include 10 modules, each containing 5 lessons, for a total of 50 lessons. In the Foundational Reading Planning and Pacing Guide: Kindergarten, the modules and lessons are divided so that one lesson is taught over the course of the week, and one module takes five weeks to complete.

• All letters are introduced by name in Lessons 1–10, in Modules 1 and 2. Letters and sounds are introduced together in Module 3. Beginning in Module 3, Lesson 11, students learn two to four letters in each module. Students will have been introduced to each letter and its corresponding sound by Module 8, Lesson 39. The materials include 10 modules, so letter identification and their corresponding sounds are not taught in completion until nearly the end of the program.

• The materials reference research-based recommendations such as the Neuhaus Education Center Reading Academy Materials and a Reading Rockets article, Making Friends With Phonemes.

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

• The materials introduce letters in isolation, without introducing their sound. However, lessons do not clearly identify the alphabet knowledge skills to be learned. While the materials do include the learning target in the Teacher Guide, the materials do not script how to communicate the lesson objective to the students. For example, in Module 1, Lesson 2, the teacher introduces Ll, Mm, and Pp. The teacher displays a sound-spelling card (ladder) and says, “This is a picture of a ladder. The word ladder begins with the letter l. At the top of the card are two letters. Let’s find out what they are!” The teacher writes Ll and points to the L, saying, “This is uppercase, or capital L.” Then the teacher points to the l and says, “This letter is lowercase l. These two letters look similar. They are the same height, and they both have a tall, straight line.” The teacher has the students practice saying the letter names. Then, the teacher points to the L and asks, “What letter is this?” The teacher points to the l and asks, “What letter is this?” This routine is repeated for the letters Mm and Pp with their respective sound-spelling cards. Then, the teacher says, “Now, you are going to look at some letters and tell me what they are.” The teacher displays a row of letters (L m M p l P L M m p L p m P p M), and students practice identifying them by name and determining which letters are uppercase and which are lowercase. There is no mention of the letters learned in the previous lesson.

• The materials introduce letters with their sounds beginning in Module 3. These lessons also contain scripted, direct (explicit) instruction. However, lessons do not clearly identify the alphabet knowledge skills to be learned, nor do they communicate the objectives clearly to students. For example, in Module 4, Lesson 17, students learn the sound /n/ and /i/. The teacher displays the sound-spelling card (nurse) and says, “This is a picture of a nurse. The letter n spells the consonant sound /n/. Say the sound with me: /nnn/.” The teacher then displays a second sound-spelling card (insect) and says, “This is a picture of insects. The word insect starts with the sound /i/ spelled i. Say the sound with me: /iiiiii/.” The teacher writes the word tin on the board and underlines the i and the n. The teacher asks, “What sounds do the letters i and n spell?” After repeating the sounds of these letters several times, the teacher says, “I can blend sounds to read a word.” The teacher slides their finger under the sound-spellings as they say, “/t/ /i/ /n/, tin.” Next, the teacher writes the word pin on the board and says, “Now you are going to blend sounds to read words.” The teacher slides their finger under the sound-spellings as students read the word. This routine is repeated with the word bin, and additional words are included on a Quick List if additional practice is needed.

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

• The materials do not contain direct (explicit) instruction on forming the 26 letters (upper and lowercase). There is no direct instruction given on letter formation throughout the resources. The materials include a student worktext, which has an independent practice page that corresponds to each letter introduction lesson. The letter introduction lessons do not contain any instructions on letter formation. For example, in the student worktext, the directions state that students should “Find the hidden letters. Circle T and t” above an illustration of a train with is hidden in the image. Below that image is a sentence, “Tt is for train.” The upper and lowercase letters are written in a traceable font, with arrows directing students to trace using correct letter formation. This practice page corresponds to Module 1, Lesson 4, which teaches students the upper and lowercase Tt. The Minilesson does not contain any instruction on letter formation.

• Direct instruction on letter formation is mentioned in the More section of the lessons. The More section includes ideas for activities that relate to the lessons but are not required. The Letter Formation activities are suggested in the first two modules. There is no instruction on letter sounds at this time in the resource. For example, in the More section, following the Minilesson presented in Module 1, Lesson 4, there is a section titled Letter Formation. The materials tell the teacher to use “Handwriting Printables Tt, Uu, Yy.” The instructions for this activity are to “model the formation of each lowercase and uppercase letter. Then have children practice their letter formations.”

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 include sound-spelling cards for teachers to use during letter recognition introduction lessons as well as during letter sound introduction lessons. The same cards are used. For example, in Module 1, Lesson 3, the letter Ii is introduced with a sound-spelling card that has a picture of insects and the letter Ii above it. When the sound for Ii /i/ is introduced later on, in Module 4, Lesson 17, the same sound-spelling card is used. Not all pictures are ideal for introducing sound-spellings. For example, the sound-spelling card for the letter Ee is a picture of an elephant, which sounds like the letter Ll, not short e. The sound-spelling card for the letter Ii is a picture of insects, which has a beginning sound that sounds like the letter n.

• The student worktext includes pages to practice letter identification and formation. The pages contain similar activities, such as: identifying the target letter by circling hidden letters in a picture, coloring by letter, and circling or coloring the target letter mixed in with other letters. The pages provide one upper- and lowercase letter to trace. For example, in Module 1, Lesson 3, students find and circle the hidden letter Ii in a picture of an iguana. They then trace the letter Ii, which is dotted with arrows and numbers to show the steps for correct formation. These traceable letters are in the sentence “Ii is for iguana.” There is no additional writing practice on these pages.

• The materials mention handwriting printables, printable games, printable letter cards, and interactive online games.

• Materials include opportunities to practice identifying, naming, forming, and saying the sounds of letters of meaningful print. For example, in Module 4, Lesson 17, the foldable decodable includes words that begin with the letter sounds learned. The letters taught in the lesson are n and i. Students hear several words that begin with n or i. The teacher reads the text aloud, having the students follow along with their fingers. Then the teacher goes back and points out the phonics target words. As the teacher points out the words, students can highlight or underline the words.

• The materials do not include a cumulative review of alphabet knowledge.

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

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

Materials do not systematically introduce letter-sound relationships in an order that quickly allows for application to basic decoding and encoding. Materials provide some scripts for connecting phonemes to letters within words. Materials incorporate some activities and resources for students to develop, practice, and reinforce their understanding of applying letter-sound correspondence to decode simple words both in isolation and in decodable connected text.

Evidence includes but is not limited to:

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

• The materials do not introduce letter-sound relationships in a way that quickly allows for application to basic decoding and encoding. The Teacher’s Guide includes a table of contents that shows the order for the instruction of letter-sound relationships. Of the 10 Modules included in the materials, Modules 1 and 2 introduce all 26 capital and lowercase letters only through letter identification. No sound-symbol relationships are taught in Modules 1 and 2. High utility letter sounds are introduced in Modules 3–8 with explicit lessons connecting sound and symbols. For example, letters Cc, Oo, and Ss are taught first, and letters Ll, Mm, and Pp are taught second. Students do not learn the letter-sound relationship for all letters until the end of Module 8.

• According to the Foundational Reading Planning and Pacing Guide: Kindergarten, one lesson spans 5 days, and one module spans 5 weeks. This means that students do not learn all letters by name until the tenth week of school and don’t begin learning letter sounds until the eleventh week of school. The materials do not finish teaching letter sounds until Module 8, which corresponds to nearly the end of the year.

• Blending is introduced in Module 3 when lessons connecting sound-symbol relationships begin. For example, in Module 3, Lesson 13, after learning the letters Ss and Aa, the teacher writes the word sat on the board and underlines the letters s and a. The teacher says, “What sounds do the letters s and a spell?” Students repeat the sounds of /s/ and /a/ several times. Then the teacher says, “We already learned that t spells the sound /t/. I can blend sounds to read a word. The teacher slides a finger under the sound-spellings as they say “/s/ /a/ /t/.” Then, the teacher directs the students, “Now you are going to blend sound to read words.” The teacher writes the word Sam on the board and slides a finger under the sound-spellings as students blend the sounds to read the word. This is repeated with the words mat and tam.

• In Module 4, word families are introduced. In the student worktext, students practice writing CVC words to identify the picture. Students look at the picture and say the picture name. Then they identify the letter that makes the initial sound, medial sound, and ending sound. Module 9 provides students the opportunity to recognize similarly spelled words and spell CV words.

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

• Materials provide scripted direct (explicit) instruction for connecting phonemes to letters within words through phonics Minilessons. The format of the Minilessons is similar to the gradual release model, with a teaching portion, a guided practice portion, and opportunities for independent and partner practice, along with a student worktext. For example, in Module 8, Lesson 38, the teacher displays a sound-spelling card picture of a volcano. The teacher says, “This is a picture of a volcano. The word volcano begins with the sound /v/. Say the sound with me: /v/.” Next, the teacher writes the word vet, underlines the letter v, and says, “What sound does the letter v spell?” “I can blend sounds to read a word.” The teacher slides a finger under the sound-spellings and says, “/v/ /e/ /t/, vet.” Next, the teacher says, “Now you are going to blend sounds to read words.” The teacher writes the word van and slides their finger under the sound-spellings as children blend the sounds to read the word. Finally, students use their knowledge of sound-spellings to write words that are dictated to them. The teacher says each of these words very slowly: “vet, van, zig, zag.”

• While the materials do include the learning target in the Teacher Guide, the materials do not script how to communicate the lesson objective to the students. In each lesson where a new letter is introduced, the teacher begins with a sound spelling card, a song, and three activity pages that focus on the focus letters' sounds. The teacher also directs students to recognize uppercase and lowercase letters. For example, in Module 4, lesson 18, the teacher displays a sound-spelling card and says, “This is a picture of a bat. The first sound in the word bat is /b/. The word bat ends with sounds /a/ /t/. The letters a, t spell the ending sounds /a/ /t/.” The teacher writes the word bat on the board and underlines the letters at and asks, “What sounds do letters a, t spell when they are together?” The teacher slides a finger under the sound-spellings and says, “/b/ /a/ /t/t, bat.” The teacher then writes the word sat under the word bat on the board. The letters at are underlined, and the teacher says, “The words bat and sat have the same ending sounds /a/ /t/, spelled a, t, so they are both in the -at word family. A word family is a group of words that have the same pattern or group of letters with the same sounds.” The learning objective is not stated for the students.

• The materials include instruction that connects new learning to previous learning through instructional routines. Each time a new sound-symbol or spelling pattern is introduced, the method of introduction is consistent. For example, in Module 5, Lesson 21, the teacher displays the picture card for pan and says, “Listen to this word: pan.” The teacher tells the children the first, next, and final sound by saying, “/p/ /a/ /n/ The first sound in the word is /p/. Now say the first sound with me. /p/.” Next, the teacher displays the picture card for man and says “Now listen as I say the sounds in another word. /m/ /a/ /n/. The first sound in man is /m/.” Next, the teacher displays the picture card for the word mug and says, “This is a picture of a mug. The sounds in mug are /m/ /u/ /g/. The first sound in the word mug is /m/.” The teacher then puts their hands around their mouth like a megaphone when saying the initial sound and repeats this with the picture card for rug. After the Teach and Model portions of the lesson, the third step is to Guide Practice. In this section, the teacher displays the picture card for the word can and says, “This is a picture of a can, /k/ /a/ /n/. What is the first sound you hear in can?” Children use the same megaphone motion as the teacher and isolate and pronounce the initial sound. They repeat with top, bat, and bed.

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

• Materials include several student consumables and digital interactive practice activities for applying letter-sound correspondence. Consumables include a student worktext, foldable decodable readers, sound-spelling cards, and picture cards for students to develop, practice, and reinforce their understanding of applying letter-sound correspondence to decode simple words. For example, in Module 4, Lesson 18, the teacher says, “Listen to the first sound in a word: /m/. Now listen to the second part of the word: -an. I’ll say the sounds together: /m/, (pause), -an. Does that sound like a word? Let’s blend the sounds to say a word: /m/, -an, (faster) man. In the student worktext, students use boxes to write a CVC word naming the given picture using letters they have already learned. Students are provided decodable texts to practice decoding words related to this lesson.

• Materials include resources for teacher use for developing and reinforcing students’ understanding of applying letter-sound correspondence. Materials include picture cards, sound spelling cards, and articulation videos. After each Minilesson, the lessons include a variety of activities in the More section. For example, in Module 2, Lesson 9, the students have an independent activity in their worktext. If students need more instruction, the teacher can reference the More section, where additional opportunities for more practice, either independently or with a partner, are provided.

• Materials include opportunities for students to decode and encode simple one-syllable words in isolation with included word lists for students to decode. For example, the materials include a Dictation section with each phonics lesson for teachers to dictate words for students to use their knowledge of sound-spellings to write the words. In Module 6, Lesson 27, the dictation includes the words fib, fad, if, and fin after a lesson on the consonant Ff and its sound /f/.

• Materials include opportunities for students to decode and encode simple one-syllable words in connected text. Decodable foldables (texts) and decodable passages are included for students to practice applying their knowledge of letter-sound correspondences with support from the teacher as well as independently. For example, Lesson 30 of the student worktext includes the decodable passage “At the Library,” which mostly contains CVC words. On the following page, students complete a sentence by writing a CVC word in the blank provided. Since the corresponding lesson reviewed the consonant Hh, all the words students must generate begin with the /h/ sound. 

• The materials consist of 10 modules, with 5 lessons per module. The fifth lesson in each module is a review of the concepts taught within the module. The materials do not contain consistent, cumulative reviews outside of those lessons.

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

The materials partially meet the criteria for this indicator. Materials provide some 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 and gradually transitions to more complex skills. Materials include some scripted 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.

• Materials provide a sequence for introducing oral syllable awareness activities. The sequence is found in the Table of Contents: Contents by Strand. The materials follow a progression of oral syllable awareness activities that transition from simple to complex. For example, the sequence of skills is: counting and pronouncing syllables in words, blending syllables in words, segmenting syllables in words, deleting syllables in words, and manipulating syllables in words. The materials also include a review of oral syllable awareness skills throughout the other modules during the Daily Phonological Awareness Review.

• Materials allow enough time to teach syllabication by breaking it down into individual components for students to master simple skills before continuing to the more complex ones. Each lesson is taught for one week and allows time to master the skill before moving on to the next lesson.

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

• Materials include scripted, direct (explicit) instruction for teaching oral awareness skills. Each Minilesson includes scripts that follow a gradual release model. For example, in Module 3, Lesson 11, students learn how to blend syllables in words. The teacher says, “Words are made up of parts, or syllables. Listen to these syllables: mit (clap) ten (clap). I hear two syllables. Now I’ll blend the syllables, or put them together, to say the word: (slowly) mit (pause) ten; (more quickly) mit-ten; (quickly) mitten. Now listen as I blend, or put together, the syllables in another word: (slowly) el (pause) bow; (more quickly) el-bow; elbow.” The materials direct the teacher to model this skill (I do) by clapping their hands as they say each syllable, “side (clap) walk (clap).” Then, the teacher completes the blending activity by repeating the syllables, clapping, and then clapping faster to blend them: “side-walk, sidewalk.” Then, students have an opportunity to use the same clapping motions as they blend syllables into words with the teacher (We do). The words they use are mon-key, monkey; pa-per, paper; and pen-cil; pencil. Following this, the materials include a More section for limited independent practice (You do).

• Materials include a More section to provide opportunities to apply syllable awareness skills independently. For example, there is an Activity Break using picture cards. The teacher puts students in groups and gives each group a picture card with a two-syllable word, such as lemon, garden, or tiger. The teacher says the word of one of the picture cards slowly, clapping to emphasize each syllable. Then they blend and clap the syllables a little faster. When the group with that picture card hears their word, the students stand up. Groups get a point if they can correctly say and clap the syllables for their word and then blend them to say the whole word.

• New lessons in the materials do not connect to previous learning. For example, in Module 3, Lesson 11, students learn how to blend syllables in words. In the following lesson, Module 3, Lesson 12, students learn how to segment syllables in words. The script does not reference previous skills related to syllables. Instead, the materials direct the teacher to begin the lesson by saying, “Words are made up of parts, or syllables. Listen to this word: tiger. I can segment, or break apart, the word into syllables. I’ll say each part: (slowly) ti (pause) ger. I hear two syllables: ti and ger. What is the first syllable of this word? What is the second syllable?” There is no mention of other syllable lessons or skills.

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

• Materials incorporate a variety of activities for students to develop, practice, and reinforce oral syllable awareness skills. For example, in Module 3, Lesson 11, students learn how to blend syllables into words by clapping. In Module 3, Lesson 14, students practice manipulating syllables in words by tapping their palms as they say each syllable in different words and nonsense words such as sun-rise, risesun; side-walk, walkside; and bee-hive, hivebee. Students also practice manipulating syllables in words with a partner practice activity with picture cards. One student selects the picture card and says the syllables in the word. The other partner switches the syllables to say a silly word.

• Materials suggest a variety of multimodal resources for supporting syllabication development in single and multi-syllabic words. For example, materials include picture cards during Minilessons and practice activities. In Module 3, Lesson 14, partners use picture cards with two- or three- syllable words to practice deleting syllables in words. One student chooses a card and says the word. Their partner says the word without the first syllable, then the partners switch roles.

• Materials include a daily cumulative review for phonological awareness skills, including oral syllabication. In each lesson, following the phonological awareness Minilesson, a Daily Phonological Awareness Review is included. It reviews skills learned in previous modules and lessons. All skills are not reviewed each day. For example, in Module 5, Lesson 21, there are review routines for segmenting syllables in words, deleting syllables in words, and manipulating syllables in words. In Module 8, Lesson 36, there are no routines to review oral syllable awareness skills.

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

The materials partially meet the criteria for this indicator. Materials provide some 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 some scripted direct (explicit) instruction for teaching phonemic awareness. Materials do not 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 some 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.

• The materials provide a systematic sequence for introducing phonemic awareness activities that follow the phonemic awareness continuum, and the sequence follows the skills outlined in the TEKS. This can be found in the table of contents when looking at the Contents by Strand. The Contents by Strand: Phonological Awareness lists all of the content covered for this strand in the materials. The materials use a sequence that follows the phonemic awareness continuum. For example, the materials begin by introducing rhymes, followed by alliteration, then counting words in a sentence, then syllables, onset and rime, initial, medial, and final sounds, and ends with instruction on phonemes.
• The materials also introduce skills starting with more simple lessons and moving to more complex content. For example, they begin with simple concepts, such as recognizing rhyming words, before moving on to something more complex, such as producing rhyming words. When teaching phonemes, the materials begin with blending and segmenting phonemes before moving into adding, deleting, and finally substituting phonemes. Phoneme lessons are also broken up into initial phonemes, final phonemes, and medial phonemes.

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

• The materials contain lessons with direct (explicit) instruction in phonemic awareness skills such as alliteration, onset-rime, and identifying, segmenting, blending, adding, deleting, and substituting phonemes in words. The lessons do not consistently include specific and precise terms, phrasing, or statements that would support instruction of phonemic awareness concepts. The lessons do not use academic/content vocabulary throughout lessons. For example, in Module 4, Lesson 16, the teacher is directed to “demonstrate how to blend onset and rimes.” The script for the teacher does not include the words onset or rime. Instead, the lesson starts with “Listen to the first sound in the word /b/, now listen to the second part of the word /ed/.”

• The materials include lessons that follow a gradual release of responsibility model for teaching phonemic awareness. For example, in Module 7, Lesson 33, the learning target at the top of the Teacher’s Guide states, “segment phonemes.” While the materials do include the learning target in the Teacher Guide, the materials do not script how to communicate the lesson objective to the students. The materials direct the teacher to begin by showing the picture card for the word bed and saying, “Look at this picture. What is this? Say the word with me: bed. Now I’ll segment, or take apart, the sounds. The first sound is /b/. The middle sound is /e/. The last sound is /d/. The sounds in bed are /b/ /e/ /d/.” The materials give a student-friendly definition for segment but do not mention or define phoneme. This routine repeats for the words drum, flag, and web. Then, students have an opportunity to practice with the teacher using the words gum, map, nut, stamp, and wig. The practice uses the same procedure used during the lesson. Children segment phonemes in words with the teacher.

• Materials include an articulation guide in the SavvasRealize online portal. The articulation guide explains unvoiced and voiced sounds, vowel sounds, and other commonly confused sounds (ch, sh). There is explicit instruction on how to articulate each letter, including mouth and tongue position. It includes annotations such as, “When encoding initial consonant blends that are commonly confused, children should distinguish the placement and action of the lips, teeth, and tongue.” The materials also include articulation videos during phonics lessons that teach new sound-spelling patterns. For example, in Module 6, Lesson 27, students learn the sound /f/. After the Minilesson, in the More section, the teacher is informed about using Articulation Video 4 (/f/) for articulation support. The video features a child saying the sound.

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

• The materials include guidance for connecting phonemic awareness skills to the alphabetic principle to help with the transition from oral language activities to basic decoding and encoding; however, it is not direct or explicit. . These skills are taught in isolation. For example, during a phonological awareness lesson in Module 8, Lesson 36, the learning target at the top of the Teacher’s Guide states, “add phonemes to words.” The teacher leads students in oral activities by saying, “Listen to this word: lip. The sounds are /l/ /i/ /p/. Now I’ll add /s/ to the beginning of the word. The sounds are /s/ /l/ /i/ /p/. The new word is slip.” The routine repeats for other words, and students have a chance to practice with the teacher. There are no written words or phonemes or any questions asked about sounds. The materials do not use an I do, You do, We do model. There is no explicit independent practice. The phonics lesson in that same module and lesson does not correspond to the phonological awareness lesson at all and teaches students the consonant sound /y/.

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

• The materials include lessons on phonemic awareness skills. At the end of each Minilesson, there is a More section that provides additional activities and resources for students to develop and practice their understanding of the skill. For example, in Module 6, Lesson 29, students learn and practice isolating and pronouncing initial, medial, and final phonemes. A Quick List is included after the Minilesson with more words to practice with, such as nap, tag, and sun. The materials also have instructions for an Activity Break. The materials direct the teacher to play I Say, You Say, using a CVC word. The teacher says, “I say cat; you say the first sound.” The teacher continues with other words, asking students to say the first, middle, and final sounds. A list of words is included, such as mom, leg, bed, and rug. The materials also mention a digital resource related to the lesson, Spin for Sounds. The online spinner spins, and students say the word. The teacher calls on different children to isolate and pronounce the initial, medial, or final sound in the word.

• The materials include a daily phonological awareness review for students to reinforce phonemic awareness skills. Each review lesson follows the same format, with directions for the teacher that state, “Reinforce previously learned skills with more practice. Add actions used in the original lessons to make the activities multisensory.” There is a routine for each skill reviewed. The skills reviewed vary, and not all skills are cumulatively reviewed throughout the materials. For example, in Module 2, Lesson 7, the daily phonological awareness review includes a routine for identifying alliteration. The materials direct the teacher to “say each word pair. Have children repeat the initial sound if the words begin with the same sound.” The words included for practice are bow/box, lunch/lid, rim/sip, seam/team, and more. In Module 8, Lesson 36, the daily phonological awareness review includes a routine for blending phonemes. The materials direct the teacher to “say the sounds. Have children blend the sounds to say the word.” An example of sounds to blend is: /s/ /a/ /t/.

• The materials mention resources to assist students with pronouncing and articulating phonemes. For example, the Articulation Guide includes strategies for teaching phonemes, including the use of mirrors.

• The materials do not incorporate a variety of activities and resources for students to develop, practice, and reinforce their transferring of phonemic awareness skills to the alphabetic principle.

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

The materials do not meet the guidance for this indicator. Materials do not provide some sequence. Materials do not provide direct (explicit) instruction, practice, and review to develop students’ knowledge of grade-level sound-spelling patterns, as outlined in the TEKS.

Materials provide some sequence for introducing grade-level sound-spelling patterns, as outlined in the TEKS. Materials do not provide scripted direct (explicit) instruction for grade-level sound-spelling patterns. Materials do not incorporate a variety of activities and resources for students to develop, practice, and reinforce skills (through cumulative review). Materials do not provide a variety of activities and resources to decode and encode words that include taught sound-spelling patterns in isolation (e.g., word lists) and in decodable connected text that builds on previous instruction (e.g., within sentences or decodable texts).

Evidence includes but is not limited to:

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

• The materials include information about the sequence for phonics instruction. For example, in the document “Developing Sound Spelling Patterns,” there is information about what is included for phonics at each grade level and what is not included in phonics for kindergarten. The sequence is not systematic.

• The materials include a scope and sequence. Kindergarten phonics skills addressed in the materials include:

  • Know the primary sound or many of the most frequent sounds for each consonant. 

  • Associate the long and short sounds with common spellings for the five major vowels.

  • Know and decode VC one-syllable words with short vowel sounds.

  • Know and decode CV one-syllable words with long vowel sounds. 

  • Know and decode CVC one-syllable words with short vowel sounds.

  • Encode one-syllable CVC, CCVC, and CVCC words.

  • Know and decode CCVC and CVCC one-syllable words with short vowel sounds.

  • Know and decode words and syllables with VCe making a long vowel sound.

  • Read common high-frequency words by sight.

  • Read grade-appropriate irregularly spelled words.

  • Distinguish between similarly spelled words by identifying the sounds of the letters that differ.

  • Read text-CVC words, learned sight words, and short sentences.

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

• The materials include scripted direct (explicit) instruction for phonics skills. The materials do not include instruction for all grade-level sound-spelling patterns, including long vowel pairs (digraphs), r-controlled syllables, consonant digraphs, diphthongs, and final double consonants. Modules 1–8 are solely focused on letter introduction, consonant sounds, short vowel sounds, and consonant blends. Module 9, Lesson 44 introduces long vowel sounds for the first time. Module 10 introduces long vowel sounds in words with a silent e.

• The materials use a lesson plan that follows the gradual release model. The first two portions, Teach and Guide Practice, are scripted for the teacher. For example, in Module 10, Lesson 46 introduces the long a: VCe pattern. The teacher displays the sound-spelling card (rake) and says, “This is a picture of a rake. The work rake has the sound /ā/ in it. The word rake has the pattern VCe. The letter a is a vowel.” The teacher points to the letter in the word. The teacher continues, “and the e at the end is silent.” The teacher points to the letter and continues, “A vowel-consonant-silent e pattern usually means the vowel sound is long, not short.” The teacher writes the word name on the board with a V above the letter a, C above the letter m, and circles the letter e. The teacher says, “When you see a word with a VCe pattern, the vowel sound is usually long. I can blend sounds to read a word.” The teacher slides their finger under the sound-spellings, saying, “/n/ /ā/ /m/ /e/, name.” Then, the teacher writes the word safe on the board and says, “Now, you are going to blend sounds to read words.” The teacher slides a finger as the students blend the sounds to read the word. This is repeated with take and vase.

• The materials mention the objectives for the lesson at the top of the page but do not explicitly include this in the script. For example, the learning target at the top of the page for Module 10, Lesson 49, says: “Demonstrate knowledge of the long vowel sounds in one-syllable words. Decode words with the VCe syllable pattern.”

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

• Materials incorporate a variety of activities and resources for students to develop, practice, and reinforce skills (through cumulative review). The materials include a variety of activities and resources that develop, practice, and reinforce students’ knowledge of sound-spelling patterns; however, instruction in long vowel pairs (digraphs), r-controlled syllables, consonant digraphs, diphthongs, and final double consonants is not included in kindergarten. The only grade-level sound-spelling pattern included is the long-vowel sounds using the VCe syllable pattern. For example, in Module 10, Lesson 48, there is a More section following the Minilesson. This includes instructions for practice in the corresponding student worktext page, a Quick List of words and sentences for additional practice, a partner practice activity, and a fill-in-the-blank template for teachers to create a worksheet.

• The materials include a consumable student worktext. The worktext includes phonics practice pages where students have the opportunity to practice the sound-spelling patterns introduced in the lesson. For example, in Module 10, Lesson 46, students complete a worktext page. They read each sentence, look at the picture provided, and fill in the blank with a word that follows the VCe syllable pattern and contains the long a sound (vase, lake, cake, game, gate, maze).

• The materials include a teacher resource called the Practice Generator. This resource allows teachers to create customized practice items. It includes a variety of templates, such as crossword puzzles and fill-in-the-blank activities.

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 texts that builds on previous instruction (e.g., within sentences or decodable texts).

• The materials provide activities and resources to decode and encode words that include taught- sound spelling patterns in isolation; however, instruction in long vowel pairs (digraphs), r- controlled syllables, consonant digraphs, diphthongs, and final double consonants is not included in kindergarten. The only grade-level sound-spelling pattern included is the long-vowel sounds using the VCe syllable pattern. For example, in Module 10, Lesson 47, the materials include a sound-spelling card to teach the sound-spelling pattern: long i - VCe. The materials also include a student worktext with a practice page that corresponds to the lesson. A dictation activity is at the end of the Minilesson, where students write words that follow the sound- spelling pattern as the teacher says them aloud (bike, line, ride, dime). Additional resources at the end of the lesson include a Quick List (word list) to practice more words that contain the long i sound spelled VCe and an independent practice activity where students use a t-chart that has the words hid, fin, rid, bit, kit, and pin in one column. They read each word, then write it in the second column, adding an e at the end. Students then read the new word they have created.

• The materials provide a foldable decodable or decodable passage with each lesson that can be used by students to decode words in a decodable connected text. For example, in Module 10, Lesson 47 foldable decodable, there are several words that contain the long i sound, spelled using the VCe pattern, such as fine, hike, bikes, bike, kites, glide, slide, like, ride.

• Each module contains 5 lessons. The fifth lesson is a review and assessment lesson. This review is not cumulative. The materials only include reviews at the end of each module, and the lessons review only the four most recently taught lessons. A page in the worktext, interactive practice lesson, printable game, and sound-spelling cards are also included to use as additional resources/review activities.

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

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

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

Evidence includes but is not limited to:

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

• The materials provide lessons for introducing high-frequency words in a specified sequence. High-frequency words included in the materials can be found by looking at the Table of Contents by Strand under Phonics. Another option is by looking at each Module at a Glance. Additionally, a list titled “High Frequency Words and Routines” is accessible under the Teacher Support category within the Savvas Realize digital course.

• The materials introduce high-frequency words after all of the letters have been introduced by name. For example, the first high-frequency words and Minilesson begin in Module 3, Lesson 11. The first high-frequency words introduced are I and you. Students are introduced to one to seven high-frequency words a day, with most lessons introducing two words. Each lesson spans the course of a week, so students are learning these words over the course of that week.

• Kindergarten students begin learning high-frequency words through memorization. The words learned in Module 3 include: I, you, a, the, at, am, and, and was. Students are also learning the letters Mm, Tt, Ss, Aa, and Bb in Module 3. In Module 3, Lesson 13, students are first introduced to blending CVC words. The high-frequency words learned in this lesson are at and am. These words are decodable and utilize letters learned in Module 3.

• At times, the materials pair high-frequency words that are aligned to the phonics sequence. For example, in Module 7, Lesson 33, students learn the sounds /w/ and /u/, and the high-frequency words learned are up, run, but, will, and well. However, in Module 4, Lesson 19, students learn about the word families -in and -it, and the high-frequency words learned are for and are.

• The materials sometimes address the decodable and non-decodable parts of high-frequency words. For example, in Module 4, Lesson 16, the teacher introduces the words to and of. In this script, the teacher says, “This is the word to. We will see this word a lot when we read.” The teacher points to the word and has the students say it. The teacher reminds students that they already know the sound /t/ spelled t. The process is repeated with the word of. In the next portion of the lesson, Sight Words: Spell and Write, the students are taught to spell the word to with a chant: “I can spell to: T-O, to. It has an o, but its sound is /ü/.” Once they know the chant, students are asked to spell the word. The script does not have the teacher explain the undecodable part of the word.

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

• The materials provide limited scripted instruction for teaching students how to decode regular and irregular high-frequency words. For example, in Module 8, Lesson 36, students learn the words yes and yellow after learning the consonant Yy. The teacher shows the word yes and says, “Blend and read this word.” When teaching the word yellow, the teacher tells students, “This is the word yellow. We will see this word a lot when we read.” The teacher points out the word yell inside of the word yellow.

• The materials provide limited scripted instruction for teaching students how to encode regular and irregular high-frequency words. For example, in Module 5, Lesson 24, students learn the words away and down. The words are introduced, “This is the word away. We will see this word a lot when we read.” Students practice spelling with a chant, “Let’s spell away, that’s what I say: A-W-A-Y, that spells away!” When the students know the chant, they write the word on a sheet of paper.

• The materials include limited scripted direct (explicit) instruction that loosely follows a gradual release model for teaching decoding and encoding of regular and irregular high-frequency words. For example, in Module 3, Lesson 13, the teacher displays the high-frequency word card at. The teacher says, “Blend and read this word.” The teacher slides a finger under the sound- spellings as the students blend the sounds to read the word. The routine is repeated for the word am. In Lesson 14, the teacher displays the word card was and says, “This is the word was. We will see this word a lot when we read.” The teacher points to the word and has the students say it. The teacher points out that the letter a does not spell the sound /a/ that they have learned. Students are taught to spell the word was with the chant: W-A-S spells was, and it’s the best. Spell was with me: W-A-S! Students are asked to write the word was on a sheet of paper. Students have the opportunity to do independent work when they complete the High-Frequency Words pages in the student worktext.

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

• Activities and resources somewhat support students’ development of high-frequency word knowledge. For example, there is a student worktext that contains a page to correspond with every high-frequency word lesson. In Module 5, Lesson 22, students learn the word ran. The worktext page has a table with words in it (including ran). The directions say, “Help the rabbit find the carrot. Color all the boxes with ran to reach the carrot.” At the conclusion of the lesson, exit tickets are available to be used to identify student learning.

• The materials include activities and resources for practicing decoding and encoding high- frequency words. For example, each lesson includes a “foldable decodable” that contains words that follow the phonics pattern taught in the lesson, as well as the high-frequency words learned. The foldable decodable for Module 5, Lesson 22 is titled, The Chase and uses the word ran several times. Following Minilessons, the materials provide a More section with additional practice activities. For example, in Module 10, Lesson 47, there is an activity titled Practice Generator. The teacher selects the Open Response Template to create sentence starters with high-frequency words. Students read the sentence starters and complete each one with words or pictures.

• The materials include activities and resources that somewhat cumulatively reinforce decoding and encoding high-frequency words. For example, in Module 5, Lesson 22, the students learn the high-frequency word ran. The teacher displays the high-frequency word card and says, “Blend and read this word.” The teacher slides a finger under the sound-spellings as children blend the sounds to read the word. The materials instruct the teacher to use the high-frequency word card ran and “some others from previous lessons” to give children practice reading high- frequency words. The materials instruct the teacher to “repeat until children can read all the words with automaticity.” Following Minilessons, the materials provide a More section with additional practice activities that sometimes include cumulative review. For example, in Module 10, Lesson 47, there is an Activity Break that includes a printable word grid for the teacher to use high-frequency words from the lesson and previous lessons to type up bingo cards and play several rounds with the students.

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).

• The materials include resources for recognizing, reading, and spelling high-frequency words in isolation. For example, high-frequency word cards are used to teach students and give them practice with recognizing and reading words. in Module 7, Lesson 33, students learn the words up, run, but, will, and well. The teacher displays the high-frequency word card for up and says, “Blend and read this word.” The teacher slides their finger under the sound-spellings as students blend the sounds to read it. This routine is repeated for the other words. Then, the teacher uses high-frequency word cards for all of the words learned to give students practice reading them. The materials instruct the teacher to repeat until students can read the words with automaticity. Another example is the student worktext pages. In the worktext pages that correspond to Module 3, Lesson 13, when students learn at and am, they have to practice writing each word one time, then draw shapes around the letters in the words.

• The materials include some activities for recognizing, reading, and spelling high-frequency words in isolation. For example, in Module 3, Lesson 13, the students learn the words at and am. The activity break for this lesson gives an action for the words learned. The teacher then alternates spelling the words either aloud or on the board. When the word at is spelled, students stand up. For the word am, students stay seated with their hands against their chest.

• The materials include resources for recognizing, reading, and spelling high-frequency words in connected text. For example, a decodable reader is included with every lesson that contains the target words. In Module 7, Lesson 33, the decodable reader Lak and Lil includes the high- frequency words that were learned (up, run, but, will, well) along with previously learned words (and, the, to, a, is). Another example is some of the student worktext pages. In the worktext pages that correspond to Module 7, Lesson 33, students read six sentences and select which of the high-frequency words belongs in each sentence. They complete the sentence by writing the word in the blank.

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

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

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

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

Materials include some modeling and practice with word lists, decodable phrases/sentences, and decodable connected texts in the lesson. Materials do not 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 connected texts in the lesson.

• The materials include explicit scripts during direct instruction but include limited modeling of skills. For example, in Module 4, Lesson 20, the teacher displays and reads the following word list: pat, nap, pin, sit, tan. The teacher says, “Which two words start with the sound /p/ spelled p? Which two words end with the sound /n/ spelled n? Which words have the sound /i/ spelled i?” The teacher is directed to focus on the word families. The teacher asks, “Which word belongs in the -an family? Which word belongs with the -in family? Which word belongs with the -it family?” Next, the teacher displays the words: pat, pin, nap, pan, tin, bin, sit, pit, bit, bat, mat, man, nip. The students are directed to read these words aloud while the teacher slides their fingers under each letter to guide their blending. Students read these word lists in whole group. Following the Minilesson is a More section that teachers may or may not include. In this section, there is an option to have students work independently in their student worktext for more practice with these phonics skills. It is not directly related to decoding and word reading fluency.

• The materials include limited guided practice for students in the form of Quick Lists. A Quick List is a list of words provided along with short sentences using the words. For example, in Module 6, Lesson 26, the consonant Kk and the sound /k/ is being taught. The Quick Lists provide the following examples: kit, Kip, kid, and Kim. There are three sentences included using some of the practice words.

• The materials provide limited guided practice for the students through decodable texts. For example, in Module 9, Lesson 42, students read a decodable text with a Minilesson. The teacher first introduces the story and engages the students, then the teacher displays a word list of decodable words that connect the lesson to the text. The students practice reading the words whole-group. The materials instruct the teacher to read the text two times. During the first read, the teacher reads a page at a time aloud, and students echo read. During the second read, children read the text with a partner. The materials include instructions for additional reads, stating, “Have children read the foldable decodable orally and independently to further develop automaticity.”

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

• The materials include independent practice with decodable text. However, the materials do not include independent practice with word lists and decodable phrases/ sentences. . The materials include scripts for direct instruction in whole-group settings only. The materials include general directions for independent reading of the decodable text. For example, in Module 7, Lesson 31, after a first and second read, the materials state, “Have children read the foldable decodable orally and independently to further develop automaticity. They may also complete the activity at the end of the digital book SavvasRealize.com Then have children take the book home to practice.”

• The materials do not guide the teacher to pull small groups of students who need to review the whole group lesson. In the Teach Foundational Skills YOUR Way! section of the Teacher’s Guide, the materials mention that they can be used flexibly through two pathways, a “sequential pathway” and a “differentiated pathway.” Teachers can use the differentiated pathway to: “Teach or reteach one lesson based on the needs of your classroom, use your choice of More activities to provide practice for the whole group, use the Minilesson for small groups, utilize whatever is needed to provide extra support for individual students, use ideas from More activities in your classroom centers, and determine which print or digital resources best suit the news of your classroom.”

• The materials provide limited partner activities for practicing word reading fluency. Each Minilesson contains a More section that provides additional activities. These activities are not explicitly part of the Minilesson and may not be included in instruction. A partner practice activity is often included. For example, in Module 9, Lesson 42, students learn about final consonant blends. The teacher displays a sound-spelling card (lamp) and explains that “The sounds /m/ and /p/ are blended together: (faster) /m/ /p/. The sounds /m/ and /p/ are spelled with the letters m and p. Say the blended sounds with me: /m/ /p/.” The teacher models blending with the word best, then students practice with the words land, mask, and bump. A Quick List is included on the following page of the Teacher’s Guide for additional practice, including the words desk, sent, belt, gulp, damp, raft, past, wind, ant, and life. The Quick List also includes practice sentences such as “Kris will rest on the bed” and “You can ask a pal to play.” An additional practice activity is a partner practice where children are given printable letter cards and work together to build a list of given words (gift, list, bent, sand, task, ramp) and then read them. There are no explicit word reading fluency partner activities.

• The materials provide a Differentiated Instruction section that includes support for multilingual students as well as students who need support or to extend their knowledge. In Module 5, lesson 23, the teacher pulls a group of students who need support. The teacher displays cards with the short o vowel sound. A child underlines the beginning consonant and the vowel and says the sounds of the letters. The child spells the word, pointing to each letter. The whole group says the sounds as the child points to each letter. Finally, the child blends the sounds to say the word.

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

• The materials include one decodable text per lesson. The lessons that introduce new skills contain foldable decodables which are blackline texts with illustrations. The review lesson of each module contains a decodable passage. For example, Module 9, Lesson 44 includes the decodable reader Go, Ro!

• The materials contain decodable connected texts that are aligned to the skill being taught during the corresponding Minilesson. For example, in Module 3, Lesson 14, the students learn about the sound that the consonant Bb makes. The foldable decodable contains words that begin and/or end with the b sound, such as bam, bat, and Tab.

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

The materials partially meet the criteria for this indicator. Materials include some developmentally appropriate diagnostic tools (e.g., formative and summative). Materials do not include a variety of diagnostic tools that are developmentally appropriate. Materials do not 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 do not include resources that can be used as diagnostic tools. The materials are aligned to the TPRI and provide alignment to the TPRI under the Teacher Support category within the digital course. The materials also claim that districts not using an approved universal screener/diagnostic may wish to administer the first module assessment to all students for placement and continue administering these assessments until all students have been placed. There is an assessment at the end of each module. A module is five weeks long, so these assessments are every five weeks. They cover the materials and skills that were taught throughout that module and are not cumulative. They assess student knowledge of the specific skills introduced and explicitly taught in the module. The assessments are criterion-referenced and have an item analysis for the teacher to understand which portion of the assessment correlates to each specific skill. They do not help teachers identify what students already know, what they are learning and having difficulty learning, and how their knowledge and skills are changing over time. For example, in the Module 5 Assessment, students are assessed on isolating and pronouncing initial sounds, isolating and producing medial sounds, and phonics learned in the module, including the word families -op, -ip, and -ot and consonants Cc, Rr, and Dd, and high-frequency words can, come, on, away, down, and did. These skills are not assessed again.

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

• The materials do not include resources that can be used as diagnostic tools. The materials are aligned to the TPRI and provide alignment to the TPRI under the Teacher Support category within the digital course. The materials also claim that districts not using an approved universal screener/diagnostic may wish to administer the first module assessment to all students for placement and continue administering these assessments until all students have been placed. These module assessments are included at the end of every module, along with instructions for administration. The end-of-module assessments are not diagnostic, as they are criterion-referenced and assess student knowledge of the skills within that module.

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

• The materials include a digital course that can be used to record and store student data as appropriate to the learning needs of the student. Grades and feedback can be accessed from within the Student login. The digital course contains assignments that are auto-scored by the computer as well as assignments that require manual grading by the teacher are also accessible, and teachers can view individual and class progress and usage. The materials include tutorials for using these data management tools on their online portal under the Getting Started tab.
• At the end of each Module, on the Assessment page in the Teacher’s Guide, the materials contain a paragraph titled “Use data to inform Instruction,” explaining that the data should be used to inform instruction. It also states that the students’ scores should be interpreted in conjunction with other classroom work and the teacher’s observation and that a low score in one or more strands probably indicates a need for a closer review of the child’s performance and perhaps additional instruction.

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

The materials do not meet the criteria for this indicator. Materials do not include integrated progress monitoring tools, with specific guidance on frequency of use.

Materials do not include progress monitoring tools that systematically and accurately measure students’ acquisition of grade-level skills. Materials do not 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.

• The materials do not include progress monitoring tools that routinely and systematically assess students’ acquisition of grade-level skills and measure students’ knowledge of taught phonological awareness skills and phonics patterns. They do not make recommendations for teachers to use and track their daily observations as a form of progress monitoring. Progress monitoring tools do not reflect multiple, accurate methods for assessing students.

• The materials do not systematically monitor progress because they do not establish a baseline, and teachers are not provided with a way to examine student growth over time. Districts not using an approved universal screener/diagnostic may wish to administer the first module assessment to all students to establish a baseline. The materials include Module Assessments that assess skills learned in the module, but skills are not the same from module to module.

• The materials include exit tickets that provide a checkpoint for skills learned that day and module assessments that assess skills learned in the module. These items do not provide progress monitoring because the skills are not assessed again. 

• The materials include a fluency and oral reading record starting in Module 7 that continues at the end of Modules 8, 9, and 10. These are not differentiated, and all children read the same passage for the assessment at each checkpoint. There is no guidance for monitoring children at different levels of proficiency; only information on how to analyze fluency is provided.

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

• The materials do not include specific guidance on determining the frequency of progress monitoring based on students’ strengths and needs. The tools used for progress monitoring in the materials are put within lessons and modules; there is no separate timeline. The materials do not instruct the teacher to assess different groups of students at different frequencies. An exit ticket is present at the end of every Minilesson. An Assess section in the Teacher’s Guide lets the teacher know where they can find the exit ticket for that lesson to check student understanding of the skill. An end-of-module assessment is present at the end of every module during the fifth lesson of the module.

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

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

Materials support some of the teacher’s analysis of diagnostic data to inform responses to individual students’ strengths and needs. Diagnostic tools do not provide teachers with guidance on how to plan and differentiate instruction based on student data. Materials include some 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.

• Materials partially support teachers’ analysis of diagnostic data to inform responses to individual student's strengths and needs. At the beginning of each assessment (the fifth lesson of each module), there is a paragraph entitled "Use data to inform Instruction." The paragraph tells teachers that the data from assessments should be used to inform instruction. It states that the student's score should be interpreted in conjunction with other classroom work and that a low score in one or more strands "probably indicates a need for closer review and perhaps additional instruction."

• Materials include a professional development course that addresses questions related to modifying content, how and when to review or reteach, and whether to provide scaffolding for multilingual learners. This is in the materials' Professional Learner Materials. 

• Materials include information about the scoring procedures for assessments, but provide very little guidance on what to do after assessments have been scored. There is a section at the end of each module assessment titled, “What do I do with this information.” Here, the materials inform teachers that 80% on the assessment is considered mastery and guide the teacher to meet with groups of students who had similar errors on certain parts or skills or reteach the entire class if enough students miss a skill.

• The materials include an Item Analysis Chart to determine specific areas in which the student needs additional help. The chart lists the skills included in the assessment, a page number, and the correct answer. For example, in Module 9, Lesson 45, the Item Analysis Chart lists the phonological awareness skills assessed as substituting initial and final phonemes, the phonics skills assessed as initial and final consonant blends, similarly spelled words, and CV patterns. The only information included with this chart is corrective feedback in the form of IF...THEN... statements. For example, “IF a student makes more than one mistake in one phonics skill, THEN return to the Quick List for that skill’s lesson and work with the student to review and practice reading those words.” This does not give the teacher direction in using the data to inform future instruction or offer an interpretation or analysis of the data. There is no guidance, suggested steps, reports, color-coded levels, or other resources to use.

• There is more guidance in the Support for Assessing Fluency section of the Teacher’s Guide. It includes an oral reading fluency chart that gives a percentile rank and expected words correct per minute (wcpm) for fall, winter, and spring. It explains if the child’s reading rate is low, then miscues can be analyzed to determine if they are due to decoding skills, lack of comprehension, or limited vocabulary. The guidance suggests further instruction in phonics, comprehension strategies, and exposure to additional vocabulary or modeling of fluent reading. There is no more specific guidance or fluency charts to keep track of progress.

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

• The materials do not guide teachers in using assessment data to inform their core phonics instruction. The only guidance the materials give the teacher after scoring assessments is to take notice if a group of children had errors in a certain section and meet with them to reteach the skill. There is no guidance on how to reteach the skill in a small group setting. When the

  materials direct the teacher to notice, “if a particular skill seemed difficult for many children, reteach the skill to the class,” but again does not include guidance on how to reteach any content.

• The materials include limited teacher guidance for differentiating instruction based on the students’ demonstrated understanding of specific phonological awareness or phonics skills. For example, in Module 3, corrective feedback is offered. One piece of corrective feedback says, “If... a child gets three or fewer correct in Phonological Awareness, then... go back to the original instruction in Lessons 11–14 and practice with the child individually using the Quick List words, focusing on one skill (blending, segmenting, deleting, or manipulating syllables) at a time.” The information doesn’t offer guidance for differentiating instruction based on the student’s understanding but does offer guidance on the next steps.

• Materials include a professional development course that addresses using formative assessments for literacy and offering guidance on how to steer teaching based on students' overall progress. This is in the materials' Professional Learner Materials.

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

• The materials provide many resources for practice but do not provide specific instructions on how to implement them based on student data. For example, the materials provide See and Sing videos to allow students to practice skills learned. Flashcards, picture cards, sound-spelling cards, and an articulation guide are also provided. The Practice Generator allows teachers to easily create customized practice items based on individual learner needs, but information on how to create individualized practice items is not provided.

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

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

Materials do not provide targeted instruction and activities to scaffold learning for students who have not yet mastered grade-level foundational phonics skills. Materials do not provide targeted instruction and activities to accelerate learning for students who have achieved grade-level mastery of foundational phonics skills. Materials provide some enrichment activities for all 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 materials do not provide targeted instruction and activities to scaffold learning for students who have not yet mastered grade-level foundational phonics skills. Each Minilesson contains a section after the lesson called Differentiated Instruction. It offers a suggestion for multilingual learner support, extra support, and/or extension. The extra support suggestion is geared towards students who did not master the skill in this lesson; however, it is extremely limited and often repetitive of the lesson in which the skill was originally taught. There is only one suggestion to support students and no additional lessons or guidance on instruction with differentiated instructional approaches. For example, in Module 3, Lesson 12, students learn the sound /t/. The extra support provided by the materials states, “continue the routine with the words tag and top.” There is no additional instruction or guidance provided that is specifically geared at scaffolding students who did not master the skill or at differentiating instruction further than the basic information provided.

• The materials do not include any information on identifying when students need these extra supports or offer opportunities to develop precursor skills necessary to access grade-level content. For example, in Module 4, Lesson 16, students learn the consonant p and its sound /p/. The extra support provided by the materials states, “if students need more practice with the sound /p/ spelled p, display word pairs pat/tap and pan/nap and have them say each sound with you and then blend the sounds.” There is no additional instruction or guidance provided that is specifically geared at scaffolding students who did not master the skill or at differentiating instruction and activities further than the basic information and scripts provided.

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

• The materials do not provide targeted instruction and activities to accelerate learning for students who have achieved grade-level mastery of foundational phonics skills. Each Minilesson contains a section after the lesson called Differentiated Instruction. It offers a suggestion for multilingual learner support, extra support, and/or extension. The Extend section provides an

  enrichment activity for students who have mastered the skill, but there is no guidance on upward scaffolding. These activities are often simple additional practice activities and not activities that use high-order thinking skills. For example, in Module 3, Lesson 11, students learn the consonant sound /m/. The Extend activity provided by the materials states, “have children use their knowledge of the sound /m/ to identify other words they know that begin with /m/ spelled m.”

• There are no additional activities, resources, or guidance provided to support student choice or to extend and explore new learning other than the basic information and scripts provided. For example, in Module 7, Lesson 31, students learn the sound /h/. The Extend activity provided by the materials states, “Display the words (hot, hill, hid, hand, help) and ask children to write the words, read them aloud, and draw pictures to illustrate them. Then have them use the words in sentences.”

• Not all lessons contain an Extend section. For example, in Module 5, Lesson 21, students learn about the consonant Cc and its sound /k/. The differentiated instruction section only lists guidance for multilingual learner support and extra support. There is no extended guidance given at all.

Materials provide enrichment activities for all levels of learners.

• The materials provide additional activities during each Minilesson in a section titled, More. It is not explicitly labeled as enrichment and is considered part of their gradual release model. These More activities include online interactive practice, partner practice, activity breaks, and more. For example, in Module 8, Lesson 38, students learn the sounds that consonants Vv and Zz make (/v/ and /z/). More activities include a Quick List of words that follow this spelling pattern for more practice, a partner practice activity that involves spelling CVC words containing a v or z using build-a-word, a printable game, and another partner activity using flashcards with the words zip, vet, van, and buzz. These activities are limited in scope and are not differentiated based on ability. The materials provide limited guidance or professional development to help the teacher select the best activity for their students.

• The materials include an online practice generator for the teacher, which provides templates to create a variety of worksheets such as crossword puzzles, draw and write, fill-in-the-blank, flashcards, and more. These resources provide the opportunity for the teacher to create activities; however, there is no guidance or tips for teachers to help them differentiate these activities to help students of varying levels of mastery or how to make them meaningful learning opportunities.

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

The materials do not meet the criteria for this indicator. Materials do not include a variety of instructional methods that appeal to a variety of learning interests and needs.

Materials do not include developmentally appropriate and engaging instructional approaches to engage students in mastery of the content. Materials do not support a variety of instructional settings, such as small groups and 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 do not consistently provide developmentally appropriate instructional approaches that engage students in mastery of the content. The activities and lesson scripts are identical throughout all grade levels, kindergarten through grade 2, though the skills increase in complexity. The routine is teacher lead, there is limited student participation, and includes no kinesthetic or tactile elements to support student learning. For example, in Module 8, Lesson 38, students learn the sounds /v/ and /z/. The teacher begins the lesson by saying, “This is a picture of a volcano. The word volcano begins with the sound /v/. Say the sound with me: /v/.” The teacher writes the word vet, underlines the letter v, and says, “What sound does the letter v spell? I can blend sounds to read a word. /v/ /e/ /t/, vet.” The routine repeats for the sound /z/. The teacher says, “Now you are going to blend sounds to read words.” The class reads the word van and zap as the teacher slides their finger under the words. Finally, the teacher dictates the words vet, van, zig, and zag, and students write them independently.

• While the materials provide a More section with additional activities that occasionally include kinesthetic activities in Activity Breaks, See and Sing videos and printables, it is not consistent throughout lessons, nor is it explicitly mentioned in the actual Minilesson where the skills are taught. The materials do not provide any additional teacher guidance on how to incorporate these activities either.

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

• The materials do not support a variety of instructional settings. While the Teacher’s Guide claims the materials can be used in a flexible way, stating that teachers can “use your choice of 

  More activities to provide practice for whole group, use the Minilesson for small groups, utilize whatever is needed to provide extra support for individual students, use ideas from More activities in your classroom centers, and determine which print or digital resources best suit the needs of your classroom,” the materials provide no teacher support, guidance, or professional development on the utilization of these suggestions.

• The materials do not state what instructional setting best fits each instructional activity as it is presented in the Teacher’s Guide. It is never stated, but implied, that the Minilessons are provided to the whole group, and while some of the More activities list if they are for partners or contain independent activities, this is not true for all. For example, in Module 6, Lesson 26, the phonological awareness, phonics, and high-frequency words lessons include a Minilesson consisting of modeling and guided practice, which is assumed to be the whole group, but suitable instructional settings are not stated. In the More section, a video and an Activity Break appear to be whole group activities. The Partner Practice suggests activities that include partner work using a foldable activity determining words that start with k, end with k, and no k. Students work independently on worktext pages and interactive games. It is unclear if the decodable text Minilesson is presented as a whole group or small group lesson.

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

The materials partially meet the criteria for this indicator. Materials include some supports for emergent bilinguals to meet grade-level learning expectations.

Materials include some linguistic accommodations for various levels of English language proficiency. Materials do not consistently 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 materials include some linguistic accommodations that can be used with students at varying levels of English language proficiency as defined by the ELPS. The guidance provided in the materials regarding accommodations or supports for English language learners is in a small section titled Differentiated Instruction that follows each phonics Minilesson, beginning in Module 3, when they mention Multilingual Learner Support. There is no differentiated instruction at all provided in phonological awareness Minilessons. The multilingual learner suggestion is not differentiated by English language proficiency levels and does not consistently feature scaffolds and best practices for English language learners, such as the utilization of the learner's native language and cognates, extended wait time, teacher slows their speaking, use of realia, visuals and gestures, and vocabulary instruction. For example, in Module 4, Lesson 18, students learn to read words from the -at and -a word families. The multilingual learner support states, “In many languages, short vowel sounds may not exist, or they may have approximations. English language learners may have difficulty hearing the differences in these sounds. Say the following words and have children stand up when they hear the sound /a/ spelled a: pan/pen/pin, pot/pat/pit, tan/ten/tin, bun/bin/ban.” The materials do not mention specific languages or examples for this difficulty, and no additional guidance or resources is present. Additionally, in Module 6, Lesson 29, students learn the word families -en and -et. The multilingual learner support provided after the Minilesson states, “display and read aloud the words den and set. Clarify meanings as needed, such as den (“a small room”) and set (“a group”). Then ask children to give practice with meaning: Is a den a part of a house or part of a playground? Is a set one thing or more than one thing?”

• The materials include a document titled “Support for Multilingual Learners” in the Teacher Support category of the digital platform. This document explains each language proficiency level (in accordance with the ELPS) and includes an introduction to linguistics and producing sounds in English. It also explains transference from other languages to English and points out the rare sounds in English as well as differences between English and other languages that students may speak to make teachers aware. For example, the document states that "The use of articles varies across languages. For instance, Spanish uses the definite article more often than English, while Mandarin and Cantonese do not have articles. A Spanish-speaking English learner might say The girl likes the cats instead of The girl likes cats, and a Mandarin or Cantonese speaker might say Girl like cat.” This document also gives a one-page informational background on common first languages other than English, such as Spanish, Portuguese, Arabic, and Mandarin. A Linguistic Contrastive Analysis Chart follows that to show if there are equivalents for sounds in English and other common first languages.

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

• The materials do not encourage strategic use of students’ first language as a means to linguistic, affective, cognitive, and academic development in English. Using students’ first language is not consistently mentioned as guidance in the multilingual learner support section following Minilessons, which contains brief teacher tips and minimal guidance for working with these students. Sometimes, guidance to encourage strategic use of a student's first language is not mentioned in these supports at all. For example, in Module 6, Lesson 26, the students learn the sound /k/. The multilingual learner support states, “In English, the sound /k/ is similar to the hard g sound /g/. The nasal passage is closed, so air comes through the mouth. As needed, have children place two fingers in front of their mouths when they say words with /k/. Say the words kid, kit, and kick and have children repeat. Make sure they feel air coming through their fingers.” There is no additional guidance to help multilingual learners make sense of this skill if they are having difficulty, and there is no connection to a student’s first language.

• When the materials do refer to students’ first languages in the multilingual learner supports, they do not include enough guidance for teachers to support diverse languages with examples or specific guidance on how to clarify misconceptions. The guidance given in the multilingual learner support section is a simple two to three sentence bullet and would not be sufficient for a teacher who is unfamiliar with the content. For example, in Module 3, Lesson 11, students learn the consonant sound /m/, and the multilingual learner support states, “the sound /m/ has positive transfer among most multilingual learners’ home languages, including Spanish, Cantonese, and Vietnamese. Start by practicing with familiar cognates such as these (Spanish): mapa/map, montaña/mountain, and then encourage children to share words that start with the sound /m/ in their home language.” Additionally, in Lesson 14, the multilingual learner support states, “while the sound /b/ has positive transfer among some multilingual learners’ home languages, there is no equivalent sound in Mandarin, Cantonese, Hmong, and Korean. Some English language learners may substitute /b/ with /p/. Help children distinguish the initial sounds in word pairs, such as bad/pad and bit/pit. As needed, clarify the meaning of pad and pit with images, classroom objects, or gestures.”